Prof. Dr. Karsten Meyer
Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
Lehrstuhl für Anorganische Chemie

Prof. Jonas Peters
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (CALTECH)
Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Nitrogen fixation is the natural process, by which atmospheric dinitrogen and dihydrogen is converted to ammonia (NH₃) at the active site of the iron/molybdenum-containing enzyme nitrogenase. This process is pivotal because NH₃ is required for the biosynthesis of the basic building blocks of life, and could serve as a potential H₂ storage material under more ambient conditions. In this collaborative project, new custom-tailored ligand environments will be developed and their low-coordinate iron complexes will be synthesized and studied towards N2 fixation and functionalization. To gain understanding of iron nitride reactivity, and the possible role of such species in catalysis, insight into the molecular and electronic structure of complexes stabilizing the iron nitride synthon is essential. In this context, iron nitride species and their possible role in NH₃ catalysis will be studied in collaboration with Prof. J C. Peters at the California Institute of Technology.