A perchlorate-promoted electrochemically induced nitride coupling reaction

The osmium nitride complex [OsVI(NH3)4N]3+ undergoes a one-electron reduction in acetonitrile to give [OsV(N)(NH3)4]2+, which further reacts by nitride coupling to give the μ-dinitrogen osmium complex [(CH3CN)(NH3)4OsII(N2)OsII(NH3)4(CH3CN)]4+. The formation of the μ-dinitrogen osmium complex is promoted by the presence of perchlorate anion, which causes the deposition of [(CH3CN)(NH3)4OsII(N2)OsII(NH3)4(CH3CN)](ClO4)4 on the electrode surface upon repetitive voltammetric scans.