Stepwise N-H Bond Formation From N₂-Derived Iron Nitride, Imide and Amide Intermediates to Ammonia.

ABSTRACT: Reduction of N₂ to ammonia in nature and in electrocatalysis takes place through 1-proton/1-electron steps, motivating efforts to experimentally study the steps during proton/electron transfer to well-characterized N₂-derived species with bridging nitrides. We report here the protonation and reduction reactions of an N₂-derived iron bis(nitride) complex (Rodriguez et al., Science, 2011, 334, 780). We isolate and definitively characterize triiron imido and amido intermediates that lie along the path to ammonia formation, and Mössbauer spectroscopy shows the oxidation level of iron atoms in these mixed-valence clusters. The first two H atoms add to one of the two nitrides of the bis(nitride) complex, and the proton-coupled electron transfer in t

SUBMITTER: MacLeod KC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5207225 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature