nice result ...and the marketing

https://phys.org/news/2022-12-chemists-boron-radicals-nitrogen-ammonia.html

There is a report on the use of Boron radicals to make ammonia. The original paper is found here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202209102

A worthwhile result and nice chemistry, so congratulations to the researchers.

The boron radical is made by reducing with elementary pottassium (K). That is okay for the science.

Now comes the marketing: The authors claim that their process could substitute the haber-Bosch process. And that is plain bulls*. The energy amount for making large amounts of elementary K, the safety issues when handling those and that they did it at very low concentrations with no clus on scale up.

And of course phys.org went for the marketing instead of the science...sometimes I am really disappointed by the fact that researchers think they need marketing gags to aggrandize the meaning of their results... 🙁

@Ponderable
Well you could be wrong🙂

@ponderable said
https://phys.org/news/2022-12-chemists-boron-radicals-nitrogen-ammonia.html

There is a report on the use of Boron radicals to make ammonia. The original paper is found here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202209102

A worthwhile result and nice chemistry, so congratulations to the researchers.

The boron radical is made by reducing with elementar ...[text shortened]... act that researchers think they need marketing gags to aggrandize the meaning of their results... 🙁

I guess researchers are now so used to their hard won scientific findings being hijacked and monetized by some corporation, which gets billions in profits from the breakthrough while they themselves get peanuts, that they feel compelled to spin their results so as to appeal to the highest possible bidder...?

What's the Cy in the formula? I assume "red." denotes a reducing agent.

@Soothfast
Cy is Cyclohexane. Cycloalkane, C6H12,.

@sonhouse said
@Soothfast
Cy is Cyclohexane. Cycloalkane, C6H12,.

Close!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclohexane

Cyclohexyl (C6H11) is the alkyl substituent of cyclohexane and is abbreviated Cy.

Yeah, close enough. For cyclohexane to attach to another molecule it's got to give up at least one hydrogen.