Uranium-group 14 element single bonds: Isolation and characterization of a uranium(IV) silyl species

A uranium silyl compound, (Ar[Bu-t]N)(3)USi-(SiMe3)(3) (1; Ar = 3,5-C6H3Me2), has been synthesized, isolated, and characterized structurally and theoretically; compound 1 crystallizes in the space group P < (3)over bar > and its U-Si interatomic distance was found to be 3.091(3) Angstrom. Geometry optimizations were carried out for the model systems H3EU(NH2)(3) (E = C, Si, Ge, Sn) with a set of reasonable constraints; calculated U-E distances and bond energies are in good accord with experimental data.