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T
BTip] (2-Tip) (35). Further reduction of 1 by
he propensity of carbon to form molecular feasible, the chemistry of nitrogen catenae is KC8 in toluene under argon affords the C–H
chains is unrivalled across the periodic dominated by molecular species, with N2 once activation product 3, likely from the intra-
table. In stark contrast, chain formation again being both the start and end point of all molecular insertion of transient borylene 2-Tip
is heavily disfavored for nitrogen—the next nitrogen-containing molecules. Indeed, the near- into a C–H bond of the CAAC ligand. This pro-
element on the periodic table. With its dis- totality of anthropogenic and biological nitrogen cess has precedent with other CAAC-stabilized
proportionately strong homonuclear triple bond chemistry arises from the initial transition-metal arylborylenes, and its regioselectivity is con-
(as compared with N–N single and double bonds), mediated cleavage and reduction of N2 to am- sistent with previous reports (29–31). The for-
dinitrogen (N2) is the thermodynamic end point monia (18) and ends with the regeneration of mation of 3 thus strongly supports the formation
of nitrogen chemistry (1). Catenated nitrogen N2 through the denitrification of nitrogen pro- of the transient borylene 2-Tip from the re-
compounds tend to be metastable with respect ducts (19). Remarkably, even those compounds duction of 1.
to decomposition and release of N2, rendering that contain longer chains of nitrogen atoms that When we reduced 1 using KC8 (10 equivalents)
them high-energy-density materials with appli- are generally only kinetically stable, being en- in toluene under 4 atm of N2, we obtained a
cations in gas-generating formulations for air- ergetic materials and prone to loss of N2 (20, 21), turquoise-colored solution after filtration. In
bag technologies, propulsion, and explosives (2). are produced from NH3, which is generated from this reaction, from a paramagnetic, 11B nu-
Recent work has demonstrated the existence of N2 cleavage (Fig. 1). This is true of commer- clear magnetic resonance (NMR)–silent reac-
different phases of nitrogen at ultrahigh pressures cially relevant products (1)—such as hydrazine tant (1), we obtained a diamagnetic product
(3–6), ultimately leading to the identification of and azides—of transition metal–stabilized nitro- featuring a broad 11B NMR resonance at d =
the crystalline allotrope Nn, which consists of a gen chains (22), and of metal-free cyclic and 27.9 parts per million (ppm) (5). After we iso-
covalently bonded network of nitrogen atoms in linear polynitrogen compounds (21, 23, 24–28). lated this product as dark blue crystals in a
a cubic gauche structure (7). Further computa- To this day, the formation of nitrogen chains moderate yield (31%), analysis of the mother
tional and experimental studies have identified directly from N2 remains elusive under ambi- liquor revealed that it still contained 5 as the
phases of catenated nitrogen in alloys with other ent conditions. main product, which we were not able to
elements at ultrahigh pressures and often high Natural and anthropogenic reactions of N2 further separate from the small amounts of 3
temperatures (8–10). Additionally, under plasma are generally transition metal–mediated. We present as a contaminant. The conversion of
conditions (11–13) and in the Earth’s ionosphere have recently demonstrated, however, that hy- 1 to 5 thus appears to be selective, but its
(14), N4+, N5+, N5–, and other ions can be formed povalent boron species are capable of binding quantitative isolation from the minor side-
from N2, processes that have no parallels under and reducing N2 in the absence of transition product remains difficult. The isolation of
ambient conditions (15). More recently, the de- metals (29). The coordination and functionaliza- crystalline 5 allowed us to elucidate its solid-
tection of neutral tetranitrogen (N4) from the re- tion of N2 by the transient dicoordinate-borylene state structure by means of x-ray diffraction
ionization of N4+, with lifetimes on the order of [(CAAC)BDur] [CAAC, 1-(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)- analysis, revealing an unusual bonding motif
microseconds, has attracted considerable atten- 3,3,5,5-tetramethylpyrrolidin-2-ylidene; Dur, for nitrogen (Fig. 2). Instead of featuring N2
tion (16, 17). 2,3,5,6-tetramethylphenyl] (30) was facilitated in the common end-on bridging motif, 5 is
In synthetic chemistry, in which extreme tem- by boron-to-N2 p-backbonding, which is usu- best described as a bis-borylene complex of a
perature and pressure conditions are usually un- ally the preserve of transition metal chem- [N4K2] moiety, {[(CAAC)TipB]2(m2-N4K2)}, which
istry (31) but was enabled in this case by the arises from the direct catenation of two N2
electron-rich, hypovalent nature of the borylene molecules mediated by the hypovalent boron
1
Institute for Inorganic Chemistry, Julius-Maximilians-Universität center (32). Here, we report a surprising exten- centers. The room-temperature 1H NMR spec-
Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany. 2Institute
for Sustainable Chemistry and Catalysis with Boron, Julius-
sion of this work, in which borylene chemistry trum of 5 showed broad resonances. At low
Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 transcends transition metal mimickry by medi- temperature, however, a sharpening of the
Würzburg, Germany. 3Institute of Inorganic and Analytical ating the spontaneous catenation of two N2 signals allowed us to discern spectra consistent
Chemistry, Goethe-University, Max-von-Laue-Straße, 7, molecules into an N4 chain, capped by two with a centrosymmetric molecule. Although the
60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
*These authors contributed equally to this work. †These authors
boron centers, under near-ambient conditions. line-broadening could be attributed to fluxional
contributed equally to this work. The end-on bridging (m2) coordination mode processes such as hindered rotations in the
‡Corresponding author. Email: h.braunschweig@uni-wuerzburg.de of N2 between two metal centers is very common bulky substituents, no decoalescence of the
Fig. 1. Schematic representation of the current commercial preparation of common nitrogen compounds via NH3 production,
versus the direct catenation of N2 reported here.
resonances was observed at temperatures as 290 K range are consistent with a thermally excited above, a quantum-chemical assessment revealed
low as –70°C, at which the signals are con- triplet state for 6, and the results can be fitted to far-reaching similarities between both species. In
siderably sharper. This broadening could a small singlet-triplet gap of 0.5 kcal mol–1 according both cases, the computed strong delocalization
18. J. R. Jennings, Ed., Catalytic Ammonia Synthesis— 34. R. J. Burford, M. D. Fryzuk, Nat. Rev. Chem. 1, 0026 thanks the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a
Fundamentals and Practice (Springer, 1991). (2017). postdoctoral fellowship. Author contributions: Experiments
19. B. M. Hoffman, D. Lukoyanov, Z.-Y. Yang, D. R. Dean, 35. P. Bissinger et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 53, 7360–7363 were designed by M.-A.L. and performed by M.R., M.-A.L.,
L. C. Seefeldt, Chem. Rev. 114, 4041–4062 (2014). (2014). and G.B.-C. Data analysis was done by M.-A.L., G.B.-C.,
20. T. M. Klapötke, D. G. Piercey, Inorg. Chem. 50, 2732–2734 36. J. A. Bouwstra, A. Schouten, J. Kroon, Acta Crystallogr. C 39, and M.R. X-ray crystallography was performed by G.B.-C. and
(2011). 1121–1123 (1983). M.A. The EPR investigation was led by I.K., and the NMR
21. K. O. Christe, W. W. Wilson, J. A. Sheehy, J. A. Boatz, 37. D. C. Pestana, P. P. Power, Inorg. Chem. 30, 528–535 experiments were designed by R.B. Computational
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22. M. H. V. Huynh, R. T. Baker, D. L. Jameson, A. Labouriau, 38. L.-C. Li, J. Shang, J.-L. Liu, X. Wang, N.-B. Wong, J. Mol. project was overseen by H.B. and coordinated by M.-A.L.
T. J. Meyer, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 124, 4580–4582 (2002). Struct. THEOCHEM 807, 207–210 (2007). Competing interests: The authors declare no competing
23. J. Heppekausen, T. M. Klapötke, S. M. Sproll, J. Org. Chem. 74, 39. S. J. Bonyhady, S. P. Green, C. Jones, S. Nembenna, A. Stasch, interests. Data and materials availability: Experimental
2460–2466 (2009). Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48, 2973–2977 (2009). and computational details, as well as NMR, HRMS,
24. V. N. Wiberg, H. Bayer, H. Bachhuber, Angew. Chem. 87, 40. J. Zhou, L. L. Liu, L. L. Cao, D. W. Stephan, Chem. Eur. J. 24, ultraviolet-visible, and infrared spectroscopy data are
202–203 (1975). 8589–8595 (2018). available as supplementary materials, and crystallographic
data are available free of charge from the Cambridge
25. A. Vij et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 6308–6313 (2001).
Crystallographic Data Centre under reference numbers
26. C. Zhang, C. Sun, B. Hu, C. Yu, M. Lu, Science 355, 374–376
CCDC 1876961–1876969.
(2017). ACKN OWLED GMEN TS
27. C. Yang et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140, 16488–16494 (2018). We warmly thank R. D. Dewhurst for the concept of Fig. 1,
28. C. Sun et al., Nat. Commun. 9, 1269 (2018). K. Hammond and M. Müller for the synthesis of CAAC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
29. M.-A. Légaré et al., Science 359, 896–900 (2018). precursors, and C. Mahler for mass spectrometry. Quantum-
30. M. Soleilhavoup, G. Bertrand, Acc. Chem. Res. 48, 256–266 www.sciencemag.org/content/363/6433/1329/suppl/DC1
chemical calculations were performed at the Center for
(2015). Materials and Methods
Scientific Computing (CSC) Frankfurt on the FUCHS and
31. H. Braunschweig et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 139, 1802–1805 Figs. S1 to S57
LOEWE-CSC high-performance computer clusters.
(2017). Tables S1 to S7
Funding: Financial support from the Deutsche
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32. F. Dahcheh, D. Martin, D. W. Stephan, G. Bertrand, Forschungsgemeinschaft is gratefully acknowledged.
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