Patent ID: 8431689

Claim:
A method of producing anhydrous thorium(IV) tetrahalide complexes comprising: a) providing Th(NO 3 ) 4 (H 2 O) x , where x is at least 4; b) reacting said Th(NO 3 ) 4 (H 2 O) x with a halide-containing strong acid to produce ThX 4 (H 2 O) 4 , wherein X is a halide selected from the group consisting of bromide, chloride, iodide, and combinations thereof; and, c) drying the ThX 4 (H 2 O) 4 with Me 3 SiCl or a mixture of anhydrous HC1 and Me 3 SiCl in a suitable solvent to produce a ThX 4 -ligand complex of the formula ThX 4 (ligand) 2 , wherein a molecule of ligand is a molecule of the suitable solvent, the suitable solvent selected from the group consisting of dimethoxyethane and dioxane.