Structural diversity in organically templated uranium sulfatesElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: three-dimensional packing diagrams for USO-6–USO-10. See http://www.rsc.org/suppdata/dt/b2/b209208e/

Abstract

The potential of organic amine templates to direct the synthesis of metal sulfate frameworks has been investigated. Eight novel uranyl sulfates have been prepared using a templated uranyl sulfate precursor under hydrothermal conditions. The topologis of the isolated phases vary from the molecular (0-D), to chains (1-D) to layered (2-D) frameworks. [N4C6H22]2[(UO2)2(SO4)6] (USO-10) is molecular or zero-dimensional. Two different types of one-dimensional uranyl-containing chains have been observed. [N2C4H12][UO2(H2O)(SO4)2] (USO-3), [N2C5H14][UO2(H2O)(SO4)2] (USO-4) and [N2C3H12][UO2(H2O)(SO4)2] (USO-9) contain chains based upon a [UO2(SO4)4/2] backbone. [N2C10H10][UO2(SO4)2]·H2O (USO-6) and [N2C6H18][(UO2)2(H2O)3(SO4)3] (USO-7) contain chains based upon a [UO2(SO4)3/3] backbone. Two layered or two-dimensional compounds, [N2C6H14][UO2(H2O)(SO4)2] (USO-5) and [N2C3H5]2[(UO2)2(SO4)3] (USO-8) have also been isolated. All the new phases have been characterised using a range of physical techniques including single crystal X-ray structure analysis.