Activation of Dinitrogen by Gas-Phase Species

Reactions of gas-phase species with small molecules are being actively studied to understand the elementary steps and mechanistic details of related condensed-phase processes.Activation of the very inert N≡N triple bond of dinitrogen molecule by isolated gas-phase species has attracted considerable interest in the past few decades.Apart from molecular adsorption and dissociative adsorption,interesting processes such as C-N coupling and degenerate ligand exchange were discovered.The present review focuses on the recent progress on adsorption,activation,and functionalization of N2 by gas-phase species(particularly metal cluster ions)using mass spectrometry,infrared photo-dissociation spectroscopy,anion photoelectron spectroscopy,and quantum chemical calculations including density functional theory and high-level ab initio calculations.Recent advances including characterization of adsorption products,dependence of clusters’reactivity on their sizes and structures,and mechanisms of N≡N weakening and splitting have been emphasized and prospects have been discussed.

^(15)N/^(14)N Isotopic Exchange in the Dissociative Adsorption of N_(2) on Tantalum Nitride Cluster Anions Ta_(3)N_(3)

Adsorption and activation of dinitrogen(N_(2)) is an indispensable process in nitrogen fixation.Metal nitride species continue to attract attention as a promsing catalyst for ammonia synthesis.However,the detailed mechanisms at a molecular level between reactive nitride species and N_(2) remain unclear at elevated temperature,which is important to understand the temperature effect and narrow the gap between the gas phase system and condensed phase system.Herein,the ^(15)N/^(14)N isotopic exchange in the reaction between tantalum nitride cluster anions Ta_(3)^(14)N_(3)^(-) and ^(15)N_(2) leading to the regeneration of ^(14)N_(2)/^(14)N^(15)N was observed at elevated temperature(393-593 K)using mass spectrometry.With the aid of theoretical calculations,the exchange mechanism and the effect of temperature to promote the dissociation of N_(2) on Ta_(3)N_(3)^(-) were elucidated.A comparison experiment for Ta_(3)^(14)N_(4)^(-)/^(15)N_(2) couple indicated that only desorption of ^(15)N_(2) from Ta_(3)^(14)N_(4)^(15)N_(2)^(-) took place at elevated temperature.The different exchange behavior can be well understood by the fact that nitrogen vacancy is a requisite for the dinitrogen activation over metal nitride species.This study may shed light on understanding the role of nitrogen vacancy in nitride species for ammonia synthesis and provide clues in designing effective catalysts for nitrogen fixation.