The Search for Reactions of Coordinated Dinitrogen

The second was that the complex trans-[ReCl(N2)(PMe2Ph)4], prepared by Jon Dilworth during his D. Phil, work in the UNF, was able to produce a whole range of adducts, such as shown in Equations (4) and (5).  

2 trans- [ReCl(N2)(PMePh)J + [MoCl4(PPh3)2] fra/is-[MoCl4 (N2)ReCl(PMePh)4 2] + 2PPh3 

Disappointingly, the rhenium complex also was not capable of producing ammonia. Most generally, protonation of dinitrogen complexes led to evolution of the dinitrogen as the gas, often with the production of metal hydrides, a not unexpected result in view of the electron-richness of the metal sites to which dinitrogen was bound. That we were eventually successful was due to a combination of factors, all important in research, as seasoned practitioners will know. These were persistence, preparedness and serendipity. 

Thus we had reactivity of coordinated dinitrogen to make both N-H and N-C bonds, opening up the prospect of routes to ammonia, hydrazine and organo-nitrogen componds using dinitrogen complexes as catalysts or catalyst precursors. For convenience, I will outline the advances made in the two areas separate- 

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