To break some chemical bonds you need to know a guy, who knows a guy who knows a compound. Scientists ordered just such a hit and have broken two of the toughest bonds in chemistry in the laboratory equivalent of broad daylight. The reaction yields a new chemical connection and could lead to more direct routes for making various drugs or other biologically important compounds.
In the new work, a metal complex and carbon monoxide conspire to cleave the triple bond that connects two nitrogen atoms, one of nature’s strongest chemical bonds. Busting apart bonded nitrogen has always been a daunting task. Even when accomplished, it hasn’t necessarily yielded useful products.
The new reaction yields compounds with carbon-nitrogen bonds and proceeds at mild-mannered temperatures and pressures, the researchers report December 13 in Nature Chemistry. The reaction avoids the costly chemical detour of having to make ammonia (nitrogen and hydrogen) in order to achieve the useful carbon-nitrogen bond.
“This is an important contribution,” says MIT’s Christopher Cummins, who was not involved with the work. “We can add it to our chemical toolbox.”