Oxoanion systems containing trivalent actinides

•Trivalent actinide oxoanion compounds display remarkable structural diversity.•In many, but not all cases, the structural chemistry of lanthanide and actinide oxoanion, compounds parallels one another.•Actinide borates represent an important series where the more soft and highly polarizable, borate ligand allows for adjacent actinides to display differing chemistry.

A review of trivalent actinide oxoanion compounds is presented. This work focuses on the systematics and periodic trends in the trivalent actinide series from Pu(III) to Cf(III). Three systems, are focused on: iodates, phosphites, and borates. In the first two series, the structure and bonding parallels that of lanthanides; whereas in the final series the chemistry of the actinides is distinct from the lanthanides.