Non‐Enzymatic Activation of Molecular Nitrogen

Abstract
Several transition metal complexes that can absorb nitrogen from the gas phase are now known. Some of the N2‐metal complexes are stable enough to be isolated and their structure elucidated, the N2molecule remaining chemically inert. In other cases reduction to N3−is possible, but the structure of the reactive intermediate N2‐metal complex can be approached only by mechanistic studies. In the stable complexes the nitrogen is bound via a lone pair of electrons in the direction of the molecular axis (“end‐on”), in the reducible complexes possibly “edge‐on”.