Towards catalytic ammonia oxidation with Mo and Ru- ammonia complexes

Abstract

Ammonia is an appealing nitrogen- based fuel due to its high energy d. and ease of storage and distribution. Catalysts for NH_3 oxidn. will be essential to utilize the energy stored in N- H bonds. Understanding the N- H bond breaking steps during ammonia oxidn. is crucial for developing homogeneous catalytic systems for NH oxidn. and also for developing catalysts for the synthesis of ammonia from dinitrogen. Although transition metal ammonia complexes have been known for centuries, information on their N- H bond energies is not well studied. Our current efforts involve modulating the N- H bond strength through coordination to transition metals and studying the N- H bond cleavage reactions by hydrogen atom abstraction or oxidn. and deprotonation steps. The development of mol. M- NH_3 (M = Mo, Ru) complexes supported by chelating phosphine and /or amine based ligands to catalyze NH oxidn. reactions and the initial electrochem. studies of these systems will be described.