What is a plausible mechanism for the Haber process?

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What is a plausible mechanism for the Haber process?

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Answer 1 · 2015-06-20T08:43:52

Do you mean the reaction that forms ammonia? If so, it is the Haber Process.

$N_{2} + 3 H_{2} \Leftrightarrow 2 N H_{3}$ $N_2 + 3H_2 <=> 2NH_3$

A plausible mechanism (that I just thought up, actually) for this is:

$N \equiv N + H - H \to H N = N H$ $N≡N + H-H -> HN=NH$

$H N = N H + H - H \to H_{2} N - N H_{2}$ $HN=NH + H-H -> H_2N-NH_2$

$H_{2} N - N H_{2} + H - H \to N H_{3} + N H_{3}$ $H_2N-NH_2 + H-H -> NH_3 + NH_3$

where each step is a reduction step of nitrogen transferring electrons to grab both hydrogen in each step (one N single bond e- pair is donated to a hydrogen, and one e- pair from the hydrogens is donated to break the single bond and bond to the other, cationic nitrogen).

The accepted mechanism is here, though.

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What is a plausible mechanism for the Haber process?

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