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Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
Electrocatalytic Reduction of Nitrogen to Ammonia Using a Trinuclear Nickel Thiolate Complex
Arkaprabha Das1, Sudip Barman1, Abhishek Dey1
1School of Chemical Sciences, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, 2A & 2B, Raja SC Mullick Road, Jadavpur, Kolkata-700032, India.
Abstract:
Activation and reduction of N2 to NH3 are a formidable challenge. While there have been several reports of metal complexes that can bind and activate N2, very few catalysts have been reported to catalyze the electrochemical reduction of N2 to NH3 selectively, under ambient conditions, and with reasonable yields. A trinuclear Ni complex with a bulky thiolate ligand and a boat-shaped cavity is synthesized and characterized. This complex can electrocatalytically reduce N2 selectively by 6e-/6H+ to NH3 using phenol as a proton source with a Faradaic yield of >80% at -2.3 V vs Fc+/0 in CH3CN solvent. The selective 6e-/6H+ reduction of N2 contrasts with a previous report of an analogous complex with propanethiolate ligands that could reduce N2 by 4e-/4H+ to N2H4.
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