Coordination via the oxygen atom is favoured by hard, highly electropositive centres. This is due to the fact that oxygen is a more electronegative atom and thus prefers to bind via more ionic interactions. Examples of this type of coordination were presented in the work of Arnold et al. from 2015. The group found that actinide complexes of PCO involving uranium and thorium both coordinated through the oxygen. This is the result of the contracted nature of the actinide orbitals which makes the metal centres more core-like thus favouring ionic interactions.