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Updated: Mar 20, 2026

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Nitrogenases-A Tale of Carbon Atom(s)
1Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697-3900, USA. yilinh@uci.edu.
Abstract:
Named after its ability to catalyze the reduction of nitrogen to ammonia, nitrogenase has a surprising rapport with carbon-both through the interstitial carbide that resides in the central cavity of its cofactor and through its ability to catalyze the reductive carbon-carbon coupling of small carbon compounds into hydrocarbon products. Recently, a radical-SAM-dependent pathway was revealed for the insertion of carbide, which signifies a novel biosynthetic route to complex bridged metalloclusters. Moreover, a sulfur-displacement mechanism was proposed for the activation of carbon monoxide by nitrogenase, which suggests an essential role of the interstitial carbide in maintaining the stability while permitting a certain flexibility of the cofactor structure during substrate turnover.
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