Global ammonia production reached 175 million metric tons in 2016, 90% of which is produced from high purity N2 and H2 gases at high temperatures and pressures via the Haber–Bosch process. Reliance on natural gas for H2 production results in large energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Concerns of human-induced climate change are spurring an international scientific effort to explore new approaches to ammonia production and reduce its carbon footprint. Electrocatalytic N2 reduction to ammonia is an attractive alternative that can potentially enable ammonia synthesis under milder conditions in small-scale, distributed, and on-site electrolysis cells powered by renewable electricity generated from solar or wind sources. This review provides a comprehensive account of theoretical and experimental studies on electrochemical nitrogen fixation with a focus on the low selectivity for reduction of N2 to ammonia versus protons to H2. A detailed introduction to ammonia detection methods and the execution of control experiments is given as they are crucial to the accurate reporting of experimental findings. The main part of this review focuses on theoretical and experimental progress that has been achieved under a range of conditions. Finally, comments on current challenges and potential opportunities in this field are provided.

Arylboron compounds have intriguing properties and are important building blocks for chemical synthesis. A family of Ir catalysts now enables the direct synthesis of arylboron compounds from aromatic hydrocarbons and boranes under "solventless" conditions. The Ir catalysts are highly selective for C-H activation and do not interfere with subsequent in situ transformations, including Pd-mediated cross-couplings with aryl halides. By virtue of their favorable activities and exceptional selectivities, these Ir catalysts impart the synthetic versatility of arylboron reagents to C-H bonds in aromatic and heteroaromatic hydrocarbons.

Advancement in hydrogen storage techniques represents one of the most important areas of today's materials research. While extensive efforts have been made to the existing techniques, there is no viable storage technology capable of meeting the DOE cost and performance targets at the present time. New materials with significantly improved hydrogen adsorption capability are needed. Microporous metal coordination materials (MMOM) are promising candidates for use as sorbents in hydrogen adsorption. These materials possess physical characteristics similar to those of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) but also exhibit a number of improved features. Here, we report a novel MMOM structure and its room-temperature hydrogen adsorption properties.