{"id":3959,"date":"2012-08-16T22:16:52","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T21:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/?p=3959"},"modified":"2013-06-18T17:13:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T16:13:46","slug":"life-and-death-with-nitrogen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/2012\/08\/life-and-death-with-nitrogen.html","title":{"rendered":"Life and death with nitrogen"},"content":{"rendered":"

During our essay competition<\/a> last year, quite a few participants who chose to write about nitrogen mentioned that they were interested, intrigued or amused by the fact that nitrogen was deemed \u2018lifeless\u2019 when it was first discovered as an element.<\/p>\n

It is true that elemental nitrogen \u2014 the N2<\/sub> gas that constitutes a large part of the Earth\u2019s atmosphere \u2014 does not on its own support combustion or life. Based on this observation, chemists referred to it as \u2018noxious\u2019, \u2018fixed\u2019 or \u2018burnt\u2019 air, or delightfully antique names like \u2018mephitic\u2019 or \u2018phlogisticated\u2019 air. This last term comes from the wonderful \u2018phlogiston theory\u2019 that appeared in the 17th<\/sup> century to explain combustion (in particular) through the presence of the fire-like element \u2018phlogiston\u2019. I\u2019ll leave you to read about it<\/a> and its decline, which saw phlogiston gradually demoted from a substance to a principle, to an outdated theory when the role of oxygen was better understood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

\u00a9 ALEX WING<\/p><\/div>\n

In this issue<\/a>\u2019s \u2018in your element\u2019 article<\/a> (free to nature.com registrants), Michael Tarselli \u2014 the author of the winning entry on nitrogen for last year\u2019s competition \u2014 mentions quite a few traits of nitrogen that illustrate just how obsolete its previous appellation is.<\/p>\n

Although N2<\/sub> is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and really not very reactive, we\u2019re spoilt for choice when it comes to mentioning nitrogen\u2019s involvement in crucial processes. Both chlorophyll and haem enzymes, for example, rely on porphyrins<\/a> to take care of the tiny matters of photosynthesis and transporting oxygen in the blood. A possible way to ferry hydrogen as a fuel is through ammonia borane (H3<\/sub>N\u2013BH3<\/sub>) complexes and\u00a0\u2014 to stay in the realm of renewable energies\u00a0\u2014 the ‘hangman’ architectures devised by the Nocera group<\/a> as active water-splitting catalysts also feature a macrocycle coordinated to a cobalt centre through nitrogen atoms.<\/p>\n

Of course we can find many examples of nitrogenated compounds that do have pretty harmful effects, either on the environment or our health \u2014 Tarselli explains how the high nitrogen:carbon ratio of melamine<\/a> (nitrogen-packed 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine) recently attracted attention for all the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n

On an ambiguous note, the Haber\u2013Bosch process developed in the early 20th century to ‘fix’ N2<\/sub> and convert it into useful species (something some plants do very well but chemists not so easily) produces ammonia and other nitrogenated species by reacting N2<\/sub> and H2<\/sub> over an iron catalyst. It was quickly put to use, to make both nitrates for the gunpowder and explosives of World War I and cheaper fertilizers that would dramatically boost food production worldwide. I refer you to this C&EN article<\/a> on the topic.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s impossible to try and mention all of the fields greatly impacted by nitrogenated species. I\u2019ll just mention another one of nitrogen\u2019s traits, for those of you who like bangs and flashes: its tendency to form explosive compounds. Just think of the well-known TNT, nitroglycerin, nitrogen triiodide, but also the recently synthesized azobis(tetrazole)<\/a> (C2<\/sub>H2<\/sub>N10<\/sub>!)<\/p>\n

Anne<\/p>\n

Anne Pichon (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During our essay competition last year, quite a few participants who chose to write about nitrogen mentioned that they were interested, intrigued or amused by the fact that nitrogen was deemed \u2018lifeless\u2019 when it was first discovered as an element.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":326,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anne-pichon","category-in-your-element"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/326"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/thescepticalchymist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}