Dinitrogen formation

Keywords Three-function catalyst oxygenates dinitrogen formation supported homogeneous catalysis metal cation active sites. 

NH4NO3 at 180°C. Dinitrogen formation correlated with the production of additional acidity by the reaction... 

A new representative of a multicopper cluster in a protein is Cuz in nitrous oxide reductase. As was discussed above this enzyme contains a binuclear CuA centre as in COX. While the latter in addition has CuB in the form of a copper-heme group, N20 reductase has Cuz which is the site of dinitrogen formation from the substrate N20. Recently a central inorganic sulfide has been found as a ligand to copper and multiple forms of Cuz were detected in the enzyme from Paracoccus pantotrophus.134 More recently a tetranuclear copper cluster with X-S bridges was proposed as structure for Cuz..135... 

Dube, T., Conoci, S., Gambarotta, S. et al. (1999) Tetrametallic reduction of dinitrogen formation of a tetranuclear samarium dinitrogen complex. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 38, 3657. 

Luther, G. W., Ill, Sundby, B., Lewis, B. L., Brendel, P. J., and Silverberg, N. (1997). The interaction of manganese with the nitrogen cycle in continental margin sediments Alternative pathways for dinitrogen formation. Geochim. Cosmochim. Actual, 4043—4052. 

In another scries of experiments of H2 in the gas flow was replaced by NFlj and the NO by NO to allow examination of the distribution of the two types of N atoms over the N-containing products. Figure 17b shows the variation of dinitrogen formation rates with increasing temperature in the presence of a flow of 1.2 x 10 mbar of NO and 3.0 x 10 mbar of " NFls. In the low-temperature range (T < 800 K), the rate of N N formation is higher than the rate of i N N formation, which in turn is much... 

The second equilibrium is the more important, giving rise to the nitronium ion, NOj, already mentioned as a product of the dis sociation of dinitrogen tetroxide. Several nitronium salts have been identified, for example nitronium chlorate(VII), (N02) (C104) . If pure nitric acid is dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid, the freezing point of the latter is depressed to an extent suggesting the formation of four ions, thus ... 

Solutions of dinitrogen tetroxide (the mixed anhydride of nitric and nitrous acids) in sulphuric acid are nitrating agents ( 4.3.2), and there is no doubt that the effective reagent is the nitronium ion. Its formation has been demonstrated by Raman spectroscopy and by cryoscopy ... 

In aqueous solutions of sulphuric (< 50%) and perchloric acid (< 45 %) nitrous acid is present predominantly in the molecular form, although some dehydration to dinitrogen trioxide does occur.In solutions contairdng more than 60 % and 65 % of perchloric and sulphuric acid respectively, the stoichiometric concentration of nitrous acid is present entirely as the nitrosonium ion (see the discussion of dinitrogen trioxide 4.1). Evidence for the formation of this ion comes from the occurrence of an absorption band in the Raman spectrum almost identical with the relevant absorption observed in crystalline nitrosonium perchlorate. Under conditions in which molecular nitrous... 

The more powerful anticatalysis of nitration which is found with high concentrations of nitrous acid, and with all concentrations when water is present, is attributed to the formation of dinitrogen trioxide. Heterolysis of dinitrogen trioxide could give nitrosonium and nitrite ions 2N2O4 + HjO N2O3 + 2HNO3. 

Evidence from the viscosities, densities, refractive indices and measurements of the vapour pressure of these mixtures also supports the above conclusions. Acetyl nitrate has been prepared from a mixture of acetic anhydride and dinitrogen pentoxide, and characterised, showing that the equilibria discussed do lead to the formation of that compound. The initial reaction between nitric acid and acetic anhydride is rapid at room temperature nitric acid (0-05 mol 1 ) is reported to be converted into acetyl nitrate with a half-life of about i minute. This observation is consistent with the results of some preparative experiments, in which it was found that nitric acid could be precipitated quantitatively with urea from solutions of it in acetic anhydride at —10 °C, whereas similar solutions prepared at room temperature and cooled rapidly to — 10 °C yielded only a part of their nitric acid ( 5.3.2). The following equilibrium has been investigated in detail ... 

Nitrations in acetic anhydride, or in solutions containing benzoyl nitrate ( 5.2) or dinitrogen pentoxide ( 4.2.3) have long been associated with the formation from some aromatics of higher proportions of o-nitro-compounds than are formed under other conditions. 

Nitrogen dioxide rapidly forms an equiUbtium mixture with its dimer, dinitrogen tetroxide (AH g = —28.6 kJ/mol of NO2 consumed). The formation of tetroxide is favored by low temperature and high pressure. 

Schmid s observation of the dependence of the reaction rate on the square of the concentration of nitrous acid was interpreted by Hammett (1940, p. 294) as due to the rate-limiting formation of dinitrogen trioxide, N203. The consequent attack of the amine by N203 was postulated to be faster therefore the concentration of the amine has no influence on the overall rate (zero order with respect to amine). Similarly, Hammett regards the second factor of Schmid s equation for diazotization in the presence of hydrochloric or hydrobromic acid as the result of the formation of nitrosyl halide. 

At first sight this seems surprising, as nitrous acid is a fairly weak acid (pKa = 3.15, Tummavuori and Lumme, 1968) and therefore the low equilibrium concentration of nitrite ions in Scheme 3-9 does not appear to favor the formation of dinitrogen trioxide. 

In conclusion, it is very likely that the influence of solvents on the change from the heterolytic mechanism of dissociation of the C —N bond in aromatic diazonium ions to homolytic dissociation can be accounted for by a mechanism in which a solvent molecule acts as a nucleophile or an electron donor to the P-nitrogen atom. This process is followed by a one- or a two-step homolytic dissociation to an aryl radical, a solvent radical, and a nitrogen molecule. In this way the unfavorable formation of a dinitrogen radical cation 8.3 as mentioned in Section 8.2, is eliminated. 

Calculate the standard enthalpy of formation of dinitrogen pentoxide from the following data... 

The third chapter presented by E. Schulz deals with the use of dinitrogen-containing ligands in three important asymmetric methods of C - C bond formation asymmetric cyclopropanation, the Dields-Alder reaction and al-lylic substitution. 

Perhaps chemists will be able to mimic nature without duplicating the iron-sulfur-molybdenum structure. For example, a zirconium complex with tetramethyl cyclopentadiene can bind dinitrogen in a manner that breaks the NON bond, as shown below. Treatment with hydrogen gas results in formation of small amounts of ammonia. Although the yields are too low to make this a viable commercial process, researchers hope to make the process more efficient through chemical modifications and changes in conditions. 

Figure 6. Formation of S-nitrosoatradne from atrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide...

The principal mechanistic events include N-N bond formation stage, where the coordinated NO reactant is transformed into the NzO semi-product via dinitrosyl ( M-(NO)2]Z) or dinitrogen dioxide ( M-N202 Z) intermediates, depending on the nature of TMI (vide infra). Simultaneously, the primary (M Z active sites are converted into the secondary [M-0]Z active sites involved in the dioxygen formation cycle [5], The mononitrosyl complexes are usually postulated to be the key intermediate species of this step [2,5,41], whereas the mechanistic role of dinitrosyls and dinitrogen dioxide is more indistinct as yet. 

Figure 2.16. Calculated (BP/DNP) energies of the formation of the mononitrosyl, dinitrosyl, and dinitrogen dioxygen complexes of selected TMI encaged in ZSM-5 zeolite.

---