Dinitrogen binding at vanadium in a tris(alkoxide) ligand environmentElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental and crystallographic data. CCDC 832149and 832150. For ESI and crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see DOI: 10.1039/c1cc13645c

We report the first tris(alkoxide)V(iii) complex to bind dinitrogen. Removal of THF from V(OR)3THF furnishes the highly reactive V(OR)3fragment, which binds dinitrogen to form [V(OR)3]2(μ-N2) in the solid state. Dinitrogen is readily released upon dissolution of the complex. Structural and DFT studies are consistent with significant activation of N2when bound by the vanadium tris(alkoxide) platform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]