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Updated: Feb 6, 2026

Ammonia Synthesis at Low Pressure
Published on: August 23, 2017
Reactivity of ketenyl anions towards ammonia
Prakash Duari1, Mike Jörges1, Sunita Mondal1
1Faculty of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801, Bochum, Germany. viktoria.gessner@rub.de.
Abstract:
Alkali metal ketenyls, [M(RCCO)], were found to exhibit diverging reactivities towards ammonia depending on the substitution pattern. Ketenyl anions with strong electron-withdrawing groups (R = CN or tosyl) react with NH3 to form β-ketoamides, while the phosphinoyl substituted systems (R = Ph2P(E), E = S, Se) activate all three N-H bonds, resulting in a trianionic triamide. This triamide exhibits a dimeric structure with the six potassium cations forming a unique planar triangular {K6}6+ cluster.
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