Dinitrogen fixation by gas-phase copper(I)–diimine complexes in electrospray

✍ Scribed by Christine L. Gatlin; František Tureček; Tomáš Vaisar

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 227 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1076-5174
• DOI: 10.1002/jms.1190300521

✦ Synopsis

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JMS Letters a

Dear Sir, Dinitrogen Fixation by Gas-phase Copper(1)-Diimine Complexes in Electrospray Coordination of dinitrogen molecules in transition metal complexes is an important reaction that is used by bacteria for the enzymatic fixation and subsequent reduction of atmospheric nitrogen.' Several transition metal complexes, especially those of low-valent Group IV-VI metals and Ru(II), have been found to bind N, and catalyze its reduction to hydrazine or ammonia., By contrast, gas-phase reactions with dinitrogen of metal ions are virtually unknown, with the exception of an early report on N, cleavage by bare U + ions.3 We report here an unexpected reaction of gas-phase copper complexes with dinitrogen that occurs in the high-pressure region of an electrospray interface.

Copper(I1) complexes of carboxylic acids and diimine ligands, e.g. 2,2'-bipyridyl (bpy) and phenanthroline (phen), are obtained readily in the gas phase by electrospray ionization (ESI) of 50: 50 aqueous methanol solutions containing the component^,^ as shown for the threonine complex, properties of gas-phase tetracoordinated Cu-amino acid and -peptide complexes formed by electrospray is in progress."

Yours