Synthesis and reactivity of iron-dinitrogen complexes have been extensively studied, because the iron atom plays an important role in the industrial and biological nitrogen fixation. As a result, iron-catalyzed reduction of molecular dinitrogen into ammonia has recently been achieved. Here we show that an iron-dinitrogen complex bearing an anionic PNP-pincer ligand works as an effective catalyst towards the catalytic nitrogen fixation, where a mixture of ammonia and hydrazine is produced. In the present reaction system, molecular dinitrogen is catalytically and directly converted into hydrazine by using transition metal-dinitrogen complexes as catalysts. Because hydrazine is considered as a key intermediate in the nitrogen fixation in nitrogenase, the findings described in this paper provide an opportunity to elucidate the reaction mechanism in nitrogenase.

A series of dinitrogen-bridged dimolybdenum-dinitrogen complexes bearing 4-substituted PNP-pincer ligands are synthesized by the reduction of the corresponding molybdenum trichloride complexes under 1 atm of molecular dinitrogen. In accordance with a theoretical study, the catalytic activity is enhanced by the introduction of an electron-donating group to the pyridine ring of PNP-pincer ligand, and the complex bearing 4-methoxy-substituted PNP-pincer ligands is found to work as the most effective catalyst, where 52 equiv of ammonia are produced based on the catalyst (26 equiv of ammonia based on each molybdenum atom of the catalyst), together with molecular dihydrogen as a side-product. Time profiles for the catalytic reactions indicate that the rates of the formation of ammonia and molecular dihydrogen depend on the nature of the substituent on the PNP-pincer ligand of the complexes. The formation of ammonia and molecular dihydrogen is complementary in the reaction system.

Newly designed and prepared molybdenum-nitride complexes bearing a mer-tridentate triphosphine as a ligand have been found to work as the most effective catalysts toward the catalytic reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia under ambient conditions, where up to 63 equiv of ammonia based on the Mo atom of the catalyst were produced.

The direct formation of ammonia from molecular dinitrogen under mild reaction conditions was achieved by using new cobalt dinitrogen complexes bearing an anionic PNP-type pincer ligand. Up to 15.9 equivalents of ammonia were produced based on the amount of catalyst together with 1.0 equivalent of hydrazine (17.9 equiv of fixed nitrogen atoms).

It is vital to design effective nitrogen fixation systems that operate under mild conditions, and to this end we recently reported an example of the catalytic formation of ammonia using a dinitrogen-bridged dimolybdenum complex bearing a pincer ligand, where up to twenty three equivalents of ammonia were produced based on the catalyst. Here we study the origin of the catalytic behaviour of the dinitrogen-bridged dimolybdenum complex bearing the pincer ligand with density functional theory calculations, based on stoichiometric and catalytic formation of ammonia from molecular dinitrogen under ambient conditions. Comparison of di- and mono-molybdenum systems shows that the dinitrogen-bridged dimolybdenum core structure plays a critical role in the protonation of the coordinated molecular dinitrogen in the catalytic cycle.

Intensive efforts for the transformation of dinitrogen using transition metal–dinitrogen complexes as catalysts under mild reaction conditions have been made. However, limited systems have succeeded in the catalytic formation of ammonia. Here we show that newly designed and prepared dinitrogen-bridged dimolybdenum complexes bearing N-heterocyclic carbene- and phosphine-based PCP-pincer ligands [{Mo(N2)2(PCP)}2(μ-N2)] (1) work as so far the most effective catalysts towards the formation of ammonia from dinitrogen under ambient reaction conditions, where up to 230 equiv. of ammonia are produced based on the catalyst. DFT calculations on 1 reveal that the PCP-pincer ligand serves as not only a strong σ-donor but also a π-acceptor. These electronic properties are responsible for a solid connection between the molybdenum centre and the pincer ligand, leading to the enhanced catalytic activity for nitrogen fixation.

Mo–N2 complex bearing ferrocenes as redox-active units efficiently catalyses the formation of ammonia from molecular dinitrogen under ambient conditions.

Novel molybdenum– and tungsten–dinitrogen complexes bearing PNP-type pincer ligands are prepared and characterized by X-ray analysis. Reactions of these molybdenum– and tungsten–dinitrogen complexes with an excess amount of sulfuric acid in THF at room temperature afford ammonia and hydrazine in good yields.