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Updated: Aug 17, 2025

Nitrogen Compound Characterization in Fuels by Multidimensional Gas Chromatography
Published on: May 15, 2020
Dinitrogen Activation in the Gas Phase: Spectroscopic Characterization of C-N Coupling in the V3 C+ +N2 Reaction
Zi-Yu Li1,2, Francine Horn3,2, Yao Li4,5
1State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of, Unstable and Stable Species, Institution of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, P. R. China.
Abstract:
We report on cluster-mediated C-N bond formation in the gas phase using N2 as a nitrogen source. The V3 C+ +N2 reaction is studied by a combination of ion-trap mass spectrometry with infrared photodissociation (IRPD) spectroscopy and complemented by electronic structure calculations. The proposed reaction mechanism is spectroscopically validated by identifying the structures of the reactant and product ions. V3 C+ exhibits a pyramidal structure of C1 -symmetry. N2 activation is initiated by adsorption in an end-on fashion at a vanadium site, followed by spontaneous cleavage of the N≡N triple bond and subsequent C-N coupling. The IRPD spectrum of the metal nitride product [NV3 (C=N)]+ exhibits characteristic C=N double bond (1530 cm-1 ) and V-N single bond (770, 541 and 522 cm-1 ) stretching bands.
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