Selective Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrogen to Hydrazine Using a Trinuclear Nickel Complex

Activation and reduction of N2 has been a major challenge to chemists and the focus since now has mostly been on the synthesis of NH3. Alternatively, reduction of N2 to hydrazine is desirable as hydrazine is an excellent energy vector which can release the stored energy very conveniently without the need for catalysts. Till date only one molecular catalyst is reported to be able to reduce N2 to hydrazine chemically. A trinuclear T-shaped Nickel Thiolate molecular complex is designed to activate dinitrogen. The electrochemically generated all Ni(I) state of this molecule can reduce N2 in the presence of PhOH