Fixation of N2into Value-Added Organic Chemicals

Dinitrogen fixation is one of the central topics of chemistry and the chemical industry. The development of highly efficient conversion routes to directly transform N2 in the air into value-added organic chemicals will become an important supplement to the industrial N2 fixation to ammonia or ammonium in the future, as it can shorten the synthesis procedure of N-containing compounds and prevent potential pollution. In this Perspective, we determine the potential target compounds of direct N2 fixation into value-added N-containing organic chemicals on the basis of the N element stream and value chain. The challenges of direct N2 fixation into organic compounds are analyzed, and the emerging strategies of organometallic and heterogeneous electrocatalytic and photocatalytic solutions to immobilize N2 into the target organic products are highlighted.