Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.129, No.19, 6102-6102, 2007
Low-temperature formation of nitrous oxide from dinitrogen, mediated by supported tungsten nanoclusters
N-2 was found to react with H2O on supported tungsten nanoclusters (W-n) at a temperature as low as 140 K, leading to the formation of N2O. This shows the ability of W-n to effectively activate notoriously inert N-2 at low temperatures while it remains a molecule. The N-2 activation scheme may be a hint for developing novel heterogeneous catalysts for nitrogen reaction.