Activation of Dinitrogen by Gas-Phase Species

Reactions of gas-phase species with small molecules are being actively studied to understand the elementary steps and mechanistic details of related condensed-phase processes. Activation of the very inert N≡N triple bond of dinitrogen molecule by isolated gas-phase species has attracted considerable interest in the past few decades. Apart from molecular adsorption and dissociative adsorption, interesting processes such as C–N coupling and degenerate ligand exchange were discovered. The present review article focuses on the recent progress on adsorption, activation, and functionalization of N2 by gas-phase species (particularly metal cluster ions) using mass spectrometry, infrared photo-dissociation spectroscopy, anion photoelectron spectroscopy, and quantum chemical calculations including density functional theory and high-level ab-initio calculations. Recent advances including characterization of adsorption products, dependence of clusters' reactivity on their sizes and structures, and mechanisms of N≡N weakening and splitting have been emphasized and prospects have been discussed.