The remarkable new observations on dinitrogen reactivity of Chirik and Cummins (see Focus on Catalysts, Feb 2010, Editorial) are certainly innovative and thought provoking, and Schrock * at MIT has developed molybdenum complexes which catalyse the reduction of dinitrogen by protons and electrons in which each step is completely defined. However, these results stem in part from the basic chemistry of dinitrogen uncovered in the halcyon days of the Unit/ Laboratory of Nitrogen Fixation at the University of Sussex.
That iron and molybdenum were mysteriously involved in biological nitrogen fixation was known in the 1930s, but no-one understood how. By 1965 many carbonyl complexes were known, but no dinitrogen analogues. In 1963 the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) was supporting a small group working with John Postgate on biological nitrogen fixation, and Joseph Chatt was developing ground-breaking organometallic chemistry at the ICIfunded Frythe laboratory at Welwyn. This had been set up at the suggestion of Sir Wallace Akers. Chatt's remit was to do basic transition-metal organometallic research, and he realised that his work might yield a useful industrial process, which was later realised elsewhere in the Ziegler process. Though Chatt had mentioned such a possibility to his superiors, he was ignored.
A change in the ICI management brought about a change in policy. The chemistry work at The Frythe ceased and Chatt was to be moved to the