Prof. Richard R. Schrock
14th Staudinger Lecture at FRIAS
| What |
|
|---|---|
| When |
Jun 10, 2013 from 05:15 PM to 06:00 PM |
| Where | Anatomy Auditorium (FRIAS) |
| Contact Name | Oliver Einsle |
| Add event to calendar |
vCal
iCal
|
How to Reduce Dinitrogen Catalytically to Ammonia with Protons and Electrons
Richard R. Schrock
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Since the middle of the 19th century it has been known that leguminous plants (alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, etc.) have tha ability to "fix" atmospheric nitrogen (N2, 78% of our atmosphere) to give ammonia (NH3), which can then be assimilated by plants. This process is necessary for all life and is estimated to be carried out on a scale of >108 tons per year on earth. Reduction of N2 is carried out by an enzyme in bacteria in the soil, the most efficient of which contains iron and molybdenum. The process is arguably the most complex catalytic reaction in biology. Hundreds of man years of a period of forty years were expended in efforts to reduce nitrogen to ammonia outside the enzyme before it finally was achieved with a molybdenum catalyst in 2003. The mechanism of this remarkable reaction will be discussed in some detail.
Richard R. Schrock is professor of Chemistry at MIT and received the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis.