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Inorganic chemistry

Ammonia transformed

Nature volume 427, pages 498–499 (2004)Cite this article

Ammonia is produced industrially by combining nitrogen and hydrogen gas, catalysed over a solid iron surface. How about a catalytic reaction that could take place in solution? The first steps have now been taken.

The synthesis of ammonia from its constituent elements, nitrogen and hydrogen, ranks as one of the most important discoveries in industrial catalysis1. It merited the award of two separate Nobel prizes — first to Fritz Haber in 1918 and then to Carl Bosch in 1931, recognizing the discovery of the process and its implementation, respectively. For more than 70 years, millions of tons of ammonia have been produced annually through the Haber–Bosch process; fertilizer made from this ammonia is estimated to be responsible for sustaining roughly 40% of the world's population and is the source for 40–60% of the nitrogen in the human body. Now a remarkable chemical transformation has been discovered (page 527 of this issue2) that is likely to have important implications for the production of ammonia.

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Figure 1: A new route to ammonia.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, 2036 Main Mall, Vancouver, V6T 1Z1, British Columbia, Canada

    Michael D. Fryzuk

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  1. Michael D. Fryzuk
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Fryzuk, M. Ammonia transformed. Nature 427, 498–499 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/427498a

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