Stephanie Cornet
Academic Background
2009-present: EPSRC Nuclear FiRST DTC teaching fellow, The University of Manchester, UK
2005-2008: EPSRC Postdoctoral Research Associate, The University of Manchester, UK
2004-2005: Research Associate, University of Montreal, Canada
1999-2002: Ph D in Inorganic Chemistry, University of Durham, UK
1997-1998: DEA in Chemistry, University of Franche-Comte, France
My Interests
My current research interests lie in the area of coordination chemistry of the f-elements, especially the chemistry of the actinides. I am particularly focussed on anhydrous actinyl ({AnO2}2+) coordination chemistry and probing the actinyl bond along the actinide series (U, Np, Pu). Better knowledge of the actinyl bond behaviour will help in gaining further understanding of the electronic structure of actinyl complexes.
Synthetic coordination chemistry
We are looking at exploring novel ligands system containing strong electron donors and/or “softer” donor atoms, which are able to activate the {UO2}2+ moiety by “forcing” an out of plane coordination and/or deviation for linearity.
The structural determination of actinides complexes in both solid and solution state is vital and can be achieved using single X-ray crystallography, IR and Raman Spectroscopy, multinuclear NMR Spectroscopy.
Neptunium coordination chemistry
At the Centre for Radiochemistry Research, I have developed the synthesis of a Np(VI) starting material to enter anhydrous Neptunyl coordination chemistry. Using this new precursor to synthesis new Np complexes will give further insights into neptunyl chemistry. Preparation of this compounds also led to the formation clusters containing cation-cation interactions, which have proved to have interesting magnetic properties. The structures below are [NpO2Cl2(thf)]n (left) and [{NpVIO2Cl2}{NpVO2Cl(thf)3}2] (right).
Publications
1) S.M. Cornet, I. May, M.J. Sarsfield, L.J. L Häller, N. Kaltsoyannis, M. Helliwell, Neptunyl(VI) chain and Neptunium(VI/V) and (V/IV) mixed valence cluster complexes crystallized from NpO2Cl2 THF solutions, Chem. Commun., 2009, 8, 917
2) S.M. Cornet, I. May, M.P. Redmond, O. Rosnel, C.A. Sharrad, Coordination of bistriflimide and triflate to the uranyl bis(diphenylphosphino)methane cation, {UO2(DPPMO2)2}2+, Polyhedron, 2009, 28, 363
3) L.J. Häller, N. Kaltsoyannis, M.J. Sarsfield, I. May, S.M. Cornet, M.P. Redmond, M.Helliwell, A Structural and Theoretical Investigation of Equatorial cis and trans Uranyl -Phosphinimine and -Phosphine Oxide Complexes UO2Cl2(Cy3PNH)2 and UO2Cl2(Cy3PO)2, Inorg.Chem, 2007, 46, 4868
4) S.M. Cornet, I. May, M.J. Sarsfield, N. Kaltsoyannis, L.J. Häller, C. Den Auwer, D. Meyer, Actinyl Chemistry across U, Np and Pu series, J. Alloys and Compounds, 2007, 444, 453
5) S.M. Cornet, I. May, M.J. Sarsfield, M. Helliwell, The affinity of N donor ligands in AnO22+ complexes and synthetic routes to new neptunyl chemistry, Recent Advances in Actinide Science, [Proceedings of the Actinide Conference, Actinides 2005], 8th, Manchester, United Kingdom, July 4-8, 2005.
6) M. J. Sarsfield, I. May, S. M. Cornet, M. Helliwell, Preference for nitrogen versus oxygen donor coordination in uranyl- and neptunyl(VI) complexes, Inorg.Chem., 44, 2005, 7310-7312