NOVEL APPLICATIONS OF METAL COMPLEX COMPOUNDS

摘要

The invention provides methods for the treatment of mixtures of gases and for the preparation of synthetically useful gas-metal complexes, the methods comprising contacting said gaseous mixtures with trivalent metal complexes, wherein the components of said gaseous mixtures become bound to said metal complexes in said synthetically useful gas-metal complexes. Preferred gas mixtures comprise at least one of the oxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur. Preferred trivalent metal complexes comprise sandwich complexes of uranium which comprise two aromatic rings selected from pentalenyl, indenyl, fluorenyl, cyclopentadienyl and cyclooctatetraenyl rings which are preferably substituted with ring substituent groups selected from alkyl, silyl and aikylsilyl groups. The invention also envisages the production of organic chemical compounds by electrochemical treatment of the gas-metal complexes. The invention provides an efficient and convenient means for the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and is therefore of potentially very great value environmentally, and also offers a potentially extremely valuable route for the production of a range of synthetically useful products from the reaction products of these gases with metal complexes, as well as a valuable means for the use of reserves of depleted uranium for the manufacture of useful products,