Reduced dinitrogen intermediates

Evidence for a partially reduced dinitrogen hydride intermediate which remains bound to nitrogenase has been obtained using the quenching agent p-dimethylaminobenzaldehyde (PDMAB) Fig. 2. 

A series of model studies initiated in the early 1960s by the groups of Chatt and Hidai demonstrated that dinitrogen could be bound and reduced to ammonia at a single metal centre by Mo and W complexes (Chatt et al., 1978 Hidai, 1999). However, although examples of virtually all the proposed intermediates in a Chatt cycle were isolated, no catalytic reduction of N2 to NH3 was ever achieved. Catalytic reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia... 

Ammonia is oxidized in nature to nitrate via several intermediates in the process of nitrification. Nitrate may be reduced to nitrite by either a dissimilatory or an assimilatory process. Nitrite may be assimilated into the cell via reduction to ammonia, or it may be reduced by microorganisms to N20 and N2 in denitrification. A major part of the total nitrogen in this pathway is lost to the atmosphere. However, in turn, atmospheric dinitrogen is converted to ammonia by various bacteria in nitrogen fixation. 

Increasing the number of electrons reduces the activation of N2, because the electrons occupy the orbitals which are bonding with respect to the NN bond, and actually stabilize it. In agreement with this prediction dinitrogen is sufficiently activated to be reduced by protonation by dinuclear complexes of titanium(II), zirco-nium(Il), niobium(III), tantalum(III), molybdenum(IV), and tungsten(IV), whereas it is not reduced by protonation by certain d -d complexes, such as those of molybdenum(O), ruthenium(II), or rhodium(I). Apparently dinuclear complexes M-N=N-M in which M has the d electronic configuration can be intermediates in dinitrogen reduction in protic media, particularly if they represent part of polynuclear complexes (vide infra). 

New important information about the structure of the intermediate complex was obtained from the X-ray studies of V complex with di-ferf-butylcatecholate [18]. The complex, the structure of which is presented in Figure 4, contains four vanadium ions two are divalent and two trivalent, but they are indistinguishable, thus their oxidation state is 2.5 and the complex can be regarded as existing in a semi-reduced state, similar to the s-r state of FeMoco in the presence of dithionite, which is not sufficiently reduced to activate dinitrogen. 

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