Contrasting behaviour under pressure reveals the reasons for pyramidalization in tris(amido)uranium(III) and tris(arylthiolate) uranium(III) molecules

Abstract

The reasons for which many low-coordinate complexes exhibit bent geometry, rather than a higher symmetry, are still under debate. Here, the authors use high-pressure crystallography to examine whether low-coordinate f-block molecules become more planar or pyramidal under pressure; which happens is dictated by the dipole moment of the complex and the volume of the planar form.