Dinitrogen cleavage and hydrogenation to ammonia with a uranium complex

ABSTRACT: ABSTRACT The Haber–Bosch process produces ammonia (NH3) from dinitrogen (N2) and dihydrogen (H2), but requires high temperature and pressure. Before iron-based catalysts were exploited in the current industrial Haber–Bosch process, uranium-based materials served as effective catalysts for production of NH3 from N2. Although some molecular uranium complexes are known to be capable of combining with N2, further hydrogenation with H2 forming NH3 has not been reported to date. Here, we describe the first example of N2 cleavage and hydrogenation with H2 to NH3 with a molecular uranium complex. The N2 cleavage product contains three uranium centers that are bridged by three imido μ2-NH ligands and one nitrido μ3-N ligand. Labeling experiments with 15N demonstrate that the nitrido ligand in the p

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PROVIDER: S-EPMC10026940 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature