Transition-Metal Catalysts for Ethylene Polymerization and Nitrogen Fixation
This research community develops molecular catalysts based on transition metals to solve two distinct industrial and biological problems: producing polyethylene from ethylene gas and converting atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia. The work focuses on designing specific ligand environments around metal centers to control reaction pathways and product structures.
The primary chemical systems involve nickel and palladium complexes, particularly those with diimine or bis-imino ligands, used for the polymerization and copolymerization of ethylene with polar monomers. A parallel strand of research centers on molybdenum and iron complexes, investigating the mechanisms of nitrogen fixation, including the structure of the molybdenum cofactor and the catalytic reduction of dinitrogen. Common methodological themes include the synthesis of well-defined coordination complexes, crystal structure determination, and the study of second and outer coordination sphere effects. The work bridges synthetic organometallic chemistry and the understanding of biological enzymes like nitrogenase and formate dehydrogenase.
The community is most heavily represented in molybdenum research, accounting for 4.6% of all molybdenum papers tracked, and in tungsten research, representing 2.0% of that element's output. It also contributes 1.8% of zirconium research and 1.2% of titanium research. Molybdenum is also the element with the highest absolute paper count within this group, with 5,790 papers.
The community comprises 30,307 papers, published predominantly in Inorganic Chemistry, Organometallics, and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Recent work continues to focus on nickel-catalyzed olefin copolymerization with polar monomers and the structural symmetry of catalysts, alongside studies on nitrogenase metalloclusters and electrocatalytic ammonia oxidation.