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  • Review Article
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Transuranium organometallic chemistry

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 9, pages 578–600 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Coordination chemistry is a tool to reveal the hidden nature of elements through controlled manipulation of their environment, and the benefits that this understanding has brought society are numerous. For a chemist, the actinide series represents an intriguing frontier wherein conventional chemical intuition yields to relativistic effects and atypical technical challenges influence the pace of progress. Much of the chemical understanding of transuranium elements was developed during and shortly after the Manhattan Project and was borne out of practical needs. Although theoretical interest in their fundamental bonding and behaviour has always existed, synthesis-led exploration was often not possible. Synthetic, analytical and computational advancements in the twenty-first century have changed this, and contemporary synthetic transuranium coordination chemistry has begun to reveal that their properties are more nuanced than previously appreciated. In this Review, we discuss the discovery of transuranium elements, their history and the logistical demands inherent to chemical advancement in the area, and present key progress in transuranium organometallic and selected metal–organic chemistry, with a focus on how the field has begun to mature.

Key points

  • The Review summarizes the history and current state of transuranium organometallic chemistry, with a focus on synthesis, characterization and reactivity up to early 2025.

  • The unique challenges in handling transuranium elements owing to their radioactivity, scarcity and high chemical toxicity are discussed from the perspective of synthetic chemistry.

  • Recent advancements in laboratory-scale instrumentation have enabled the characterization of transuranium complexes, doubling the number of crystallographically characterized compounds in the past decade.

  • The bonding and electronic structure of transuranium elements and ions are compared to those of lanthanide and earlier actinide analogues, emphasizing similarities and differences which manifest in their chemistry.

  • The Review outlines future directions for transuranium chemistry, including the exploration of new metal–carbon bonding motifs and the requirement for specialized ligand platforms to overcome oxidation–reduction limitations.

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Fig. 1: The unique electronic structure and bonding in f-element complexes.
Fig. 2: Bonding of actinides and lanthanides to aromatic ligands.
Fig. 3: Synthetic routes to anhydrous transuranium precursor materials.
Fig. 4: Cyclopentadienide complexes of transuranium metals.
Fig. 5: Actinocene complexes.
Fig. 6: Actinide–arene complexes.
Fig. 7: Actinide–carbon σ-bonding.
Fig. 8: Actinide–element multiple bonds.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Royal Society for generously supporting C.A.P.G. with a University Research Fellowship (URF\211271) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/Y006534/1) for the funding to B.L.L.R. We also thank the University of Manchester School of Natural Sciences and Department of Chemistry for providing PhD studentships (under EPSRC DTP EP/W524347/1) to R.E.M. and C.N.D.

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    Benjamin L. L. Réant, Cameron N. Deakin, Ross E. MacKenzie & Conrad A. P. Goodwin

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Réant, B.L.L., Deakin, C.N., MacKenzie, R.E. et al. Transuranium organometallic chemistry. Nat Rev Chem 9, 578–600 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00732-4

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