Reduction of Substrates by Nitrogenases

Nitrogenase is the enzyme that catalyzes biological N₂ reduction to NH₃. This enzyme achieves an impressive rate enhancement over the uncatalyzed reaction. Given the high demand for N₂ fixation to support food and chemical production and the heavy reliance of the industrial Haber-Bosch nitrogen fixation reaction on fossil fuels, there is a strong need to elucidate how nitrogenase achieves this difficult reaction under benign conditions as a means of informing the design of next generation synthetic catalysts. This Review summarizes recent progress in addressing how nitrogenase catalyzes the reduction of an array of substrates. New insights into the mechanism of N₂ and proton reduction are first considered. This is followed by a summary of recent gains in understanding the reduction of a number of other nitrogenous compounds not considered to be physiological substrates. Progress in understanding the reduction of a wide range of C-based substrates, including CO and CO₂, is also discussed, and remaining challenges in understanding nitrogenase substrate reduction are considered.

Electro- and Solar-Driven Fuel Synthesis with First Row Transition Metal Complexes

The synthesis of renewable fuels from abundant water or the greenhouse gas CO2 is a major step toward creating sustainable and scalable energy storage technologies. In the last few decades, much attention has focused on the development of nonprecious metal-based catalysts and, in more recent years, their integration in solid-state support materials and devices that operate in water. This review surveys the literature on 3d metal-based molecular catalysts and focuses on their immobilization on heterogeneous solid-state supports for electro-, photo-, and photoelectrocatalytic synthesis of fuels in aqueous media. The first sections highlight benchmark homogeneous systems using proton and CO2 reducing 3d transition metal catalysts as well as commonly employed methods for catalyst immobilization, including a discussion of supporting materials and anchoring groups. The subsequent sections elaborate on productive associations between molecular catalysts and a wide range of substrates based on carbon, quantum dots, metal oxide surfaces, and semiconductors. The molecule-material hybrid systems are organized as "dark" cathodes, colloidal photocatalysts, and photocathodes, and their figures of merit are discussed alongside system stability and catalyst integrity. The final section extends the scope of this review to prospects and challenges in targeting catalysis beyond "classical" H2 evolution and CO2 reduction to C1 products, by summarizing cases for higher-value products from N2 reduction, C x>1 products from CO2 utilization, and other reductive organic transformations.

A New Nitrogenase Mechanism Using a CFe8S9 Model: Does H2 Elimination Activate the Complex to N2 Addition to the Central Carbon Atom?

A truncated model of the FeMo cofactor is used to explore a new mechanism for the conversion of N2 to NH3 by the nitrogenase enzyme. After four initial protonation/reduction steps, the H4CFe8S9 cluster has two hydrogen atoms attached to sulfur, one hydrogen bridging two iron centers and one hydrogen bonded to carbon. The loss of the CH and FeHFe hydrogens as molecular hydrogen activates the cluster to addition of N2 to the carbon center. This unique step takes place at a nearly planar four-coordinate carbon center and leads to an intermediate with a significantly weakened N-N bond. A hydrogen attached to a sulfur atom is then transferred to the distal nitrogen atom. Additional prontonation/reduction steps are modeled by adding a hydrogen atom to sulfur and locating the transition states for transfer to nitrogen. The first NH3 is lost in a thermal neutral step, while the second step is endothermic. The loss of H2 activates the complex by reducing the barrier for N2 addition by 3.5 kcal/mol. Since this is the most difficult step in the mechanism, reducing the barrier for this step justifies the "extra expense" of H2 production.

Catalysis-dependent selenium incorporation and migration in the nitrogenase active site iron-molybdenum cofactor

Dinitrogen reduction in the biological nitrogen cycle is catalyzed by nitrogenase, a two-component metalloenzyme. Understanding of the transformation of the inert resting state of the active site FeMo-cofactor into an activated state capable of reducing dinitrogen remains elusive. Here we report the catalysis dependent, site-selective incorporation of selenium into the FeMo-cofactor from selenocyanate as a newly identified substrate and inhibitor. The 1.60 Å resolution structure reveals selenium occupying the S2B site of FeMo-cofactor in the Azotobacter vinelandii MoFe-protein, a position that was recently identified as the CO-binding site. The Se2B-labeled enzyme retains substrate reduction activity and marks the starting point for a crystallographic pulse-chase experiment of the active site during turnover. Through a series of crystal structures obtained at resolutions of 1.32-1.66 Å, including the CO-inhibited form of Av1-Se2B, the exchangeability of all three belt-sulfur sites is demonstrated, providing direct insights into unforeseen rearrangements of the metal center during catalysis.

The pathway for serial proton supply to the active site of nitrogenase: enhanced density functional modeling of the Grotthuss mechanism

Proton translocation along a chain of eight waters to the active site of nitrogenase is described in detail, using density functional simulations with a 269 atom system that includes surrounding amino acids.

Misconception of reductive elimination of H2, in the context of the mechanism of nitrogenase

Calculated atom partial charges reveal misconceptions of reductive elimination of H₂.