PIER Photon Science Colloquium: Nature's Machinery for Splitting Nitrogen

by Serena De Beer (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Mülheim a.d. Ruhr)

Friday 21 Sept 2012, 13:15 → 14:45 Europe/Berlin

Building 28 c, seminar room

The triple bond formed between two nitrogen atoms is one of the strongest known chemical interactions. Industrially, activating nitrogen requires extremely high temperatures and pressures. However, Nature achieves this remarkable feat under ambient conditions and pressures using the nitrogenase enzyme system, which operates under ambient conditions and pressures. Nitrogenase enzymes utilize a complex active site cluster consisting of 7 iron ions, 1 molybdenum ion and 9 sulfides (FeMoCo).[1] Recently, K-Beta x-ray emission valence to core spectroscopy has been utilized to reveal the presence of a central carbide in this cluster.[2] This has raised important questions about the role of the central carbon and its contribution to reactivity. Recent studies on the biological systems will be discussed and compared to the reactivity in both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems. The importance of high resolution x-ray spectroscopy in resolving fundamental mechanistic chemistry will be highlighted.