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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

The Synthesis, Characterization and Reactivity of a Series of Ruthenium N-triphosPh Complexes
Published on: April 10, 2015
Reduction of Dinitrogen to Ammonia and Hydrazine on Low-Valent Ruthenium Complexes
Leslie D Field1, Hsiu L Li1, P Manohari Abeysinghe1
1School of Chemistry , UNSW Sydney , Sydney , NSW 2052 , Australia.
Abstract:
The ruthenium(0) dinitrogen complexes [Ru(N2)(PP3R)] [PP3R = P(CH2CH2PR2)3; R = iPr or Cy] react with triflic acid and other strong acids to afford mixtures of ammonia and hydrazine. In this reaction, Ru(0) is oxidized to Ru(II), and depending on the solvent, Ru(II) benzene or triflate complexes are isolated and characterized from the reactions with triflic acid as the final metal-containing products from the reaction. The Ru(II) products are isolated and reduced back to Ru(0) dinitrogen complexes providing a cycle for the reduction of coordinated dinitrogen.
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