At present, almost all synthetic nitrogen-containing organic compounds need to be synthesized through industrial ammonia (NH3). The traditional industrial ammonia synthesis process (Haber-Bosch process) has extremely harsh conditions. It is estimated that annual energy consumption accounts for about 2% of global energy consumption, consumes about 25% of fossil resources, and produces a large number of greenhouse gases. Therefore, the direct, efficient and mild conversion of nitrogen into nitrogen-containing organic compounds without NH3 is one of the important ways to solve the above problems. However, few reports have been reported so far, and the catalytic reaction system has not been realized (see Chinese summary: direct synthesis of nitrogen-containing organic compounds from nitrogen, Li Jiapeng Yinjian Haoyu Chao Zhang Wenxiong Xizhenfeng, Journal of Chemistry 2017, 75, 733-743).
Recently, the Xi Zhenfeng/Zhang Wenxiong team has realized the process of synthesizing hydrazine derivatives efficiently from organic substrates such as nitrogen, MeOTf and electrophilic reagents promoted by rare earth metal scandium (Sc). They separated and characterized (N2)2?-(N2)3?-and (N2Me2)2?-Sc intermediates, and found that CO could be effectively inserted into the Sc?N bond of (N2Me2)2?-Sc intermediates, which realized the efficient coupling of N2 and CO (Scandium-Promoted Conversion of Diinto nitrogen Hydrazine Derivatives via N C Bond Formation. Ze-Jie Lv, Zhe Huang, Wen-Xiong, Zhang. * And Zhenfeng Xi, * J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 8773? 8777.
Rare earth scandium (Sc) directly converts nitrogen into organic compounds containing nitrogen
In this work, rare earth metal promoted direct synthesis of nitrogen-containing organic compounds from nitrogen was realized for the first time. Rare earth metals are of special importance to the development of our country. This work shows a new way for the efficient utilization of rare earth metals. The first author of the thesis is Dr. Lu Zejie. This work has been strongly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Research Center of Molecular Science of Beijing and the College of Chemistry of Peking University.
