Chemists taken aback as dinitrogen found to speed up some reactions
Warnings that nitrogen should no longer be considered just an inert carrier gas
Molecular nitrogen has been found to actually speed up some reactions that use ruthenium-based catalysts – despite being considered inert for the purposes of most chemical reactions.1 This behaviour could also affect other catalytic processes, so dinitrogen should no longer be considered as a simple inert carrier gas, the team from the UK and China say.