Homolytic or Heterolytic Dihydrogen Splitting with Ditantalum/Dizirconium Dinitrogen Complexes? A Computational Study

Transition metal complexes play a key role in creating efficient molecular catalysis processes leading to the ammonia production from earth-abundant dinitrogen. It is indispensable to examine the mechanism and influence of transition metal complexes on dinitrogen hydrogenation. In this paper, the mechanism of the dinitrogen hydrogenation triggered by bimetallic complexes [L2M](2)(mu-eta(2):eta(2)-N-2) (M = Ta and Zr, L = Sita-type or Chirik-type ligand) is investigated by density functional theory calculation. Our results show that the side-on ditantalum dinitrogen complex with Sita-type ligands favors the pathway of homolytic dihydrogen splitting when hydrogenation products are generated. However, the dihydrogen splitting switches to the heterolytic pathway as the dominant mechanism when Zr is the metal center. The ditantalum dinitrogen complex undergoes hydrogenation much easier from the side-on coordination mode than the side-on-end-on mode with Sita-type or Chirik-type ligands. With these findings from the computational study, this work identifies that different metal centers and coligands (Sita-type or Chirik-type) in different binding modes (side-on-end-on or side-on bridged) dictate the pathway of dihydrogen cleavage triggered by the bimetallic complexes. This work should provide insights on factors impacting the dinitrogen hydrogenation process and shed light on designing new transition metals and ligands for dinitrogen hydrogenation catalysts in the future.