ABSTRACT
This study concerns the formation of complexes with actinides at oxidation state +IV, from Th to Am, through a lacunary heteropolyanion ligand P(2)W(17)O(61)(10-). The preparation of original single crystals of complexes with 1:2 stoichiometry provided structural data through single-crystal X-ray diffraction for the entire An(IV) series. An(IV) atoms in these complexes have a coordination number of 8, and their coordination polyhedron is a distorted square antiprism. The data were used to compute a mean (An-O) interatomic distance for each actinide. When the interatomic distance is plotted versus the inverse ionic radius of these tetravalent actinides, it appears that the simple electrostatic model is not suitable for Am(IV) and Pu(IV), although this trend must be confirmed by further investigation with other examples from the An(IV) series.
