2024 has been an epic publication year for the Holland Group, topped off by two JACS papers. The first was initiated by Cory MacLeod and Sean McWilliams, who discovered a series of carbonyl and carbyne complexes, and then brought through the fire by Allie Nagelski, who changed around substituents to enable purification and did a ton of analysis. She was assisted by Sam MacMillan and Kyle Lancaster at Cornell, who made essential XAS and DFT contributions that enabled us to show that carbon bridges in diiron complexes can effectively “buffer” changes in charge, a role that may be important in the FeMoco of nitrogenase. The second was initiated by Jeremy Weber and then finished by Alec Hegg; they worked with the groups of Alex Miller and Hannah Shafaat to show a series of rhenium complexes that split N2 to nitrides, and then the nitrides can give ammonia electrochemically. Both studies involved careful mechanistic study, analysis of ligand covalency and redox activity, and careful computations that make me proud. Great work!!!
