Tungsten complexes dinitrogen activation

However, this work pre-dated the discovery of protonation of dinitrogen in the molybdenum and tungsten complexes and, once this had come to light, we turned our attention to the behaviour of isocyanides and alkynes at those sites that activated dinitrogen to reduction. For isocyanides, the first step was to bind these ligands in place of dinitrogen in the complexes trflns-[M(N2)2(dppe)2], which was done by a displacement reaction [Equation (23)]. ... 

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). 

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