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Actinide hydrides can be prepared without charging a reaction with hydrogen gas: a reported method uses liquid phenylsilane as the hydride source to make uranium and thorium hydrides in solution at 50 °C. Its stated practical advantage is easier dosing than hydrogen gas—not a quantified safety improvement.
How the H₂-free route works
In the method reported by researchers, phenylsilane supplies the hydride instead of molecular hydrogen (H₂). The reactions were described as taking place in solution at 50 °C. This is an H₂-free reagent strategy; it does not mean the reactions contain no hydrogen atoms.
The reported demonstrations involved one-pot syntheses of known uranium and thorium hydride compounds. The available coverage does not name the individual compounds or provide substrate-by-substrate experimental details.
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Why use phenylsilane instead of hydrogen gas?
The reported motivation is practical handling. Hydrogen-gas syntheses can involve elevated pressure and temperature, along with specialized infrastructure. Phenylsilane is a liquid, so it can be measured and added by syringe rather than charged as a gas. Jaqueline Kiplinger of Los Alamos National Laboratory explained: “Working with hydrogen isn’t always practical,” and noted that liquid phenylsilane makes it easier to add the hydride source precisely on an NMR scale.
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This is a handling rationale, not evidence that phenylsilane is universally safer. The coverage gives no quantified safety comparison, and it notes that organoactinide compounds can be highly sensitive to air and moisture. The chemistry remains specialist laboratory work.
What is reported about the results?
The secondary account describes the one-pot syntheses as giving high yields, sometimes exceeding the traditional route using hydrogen gas. It supplies no numerical yields, so the size and consistency of any improvement cannot be assessed from that account alone.
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Steve Liddle, co-director of the Centre for Radiochemistry Research at the University of Manchester, called the study valuable because f-block hydrides remain relatively limited in number and understanding. He suggested that easier access could help broaden the chemistry of these compounds.
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What the method does—and does not—establish
- Demonstrated focus: uranium and thorium hydrides.
- Reported conditions: reactions in solution at 50 °C.
- Reported practical difference: syringe dosing of liquid phenylsilane instead of charging with hydrogen gas.
- Not established by the available account: exact reaction conditions, compound-by-compound scope, numerical yields, and detailed limitations.
- Future scope: Kiplinger said it remained to be seen whether the approach could extend to lanthanoids, transuranic elements, and compounds beyond metallocenes. Those extensions should not be treated as demonstrated results.
Publication details
The method was reported in J. K. Pagano et al., “Phenylsilane as a safe, versatile alternative to hydrogen for the synthesis of actinide hydrides,” published in Chemical Communications in 2015, DOI 10.1039/C5CC06856H. The reported findings and quotations are summarized in Chemistry World’s 2015 coverage.
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