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Updated: Dec 7, 2025

Supercritical Nitrogen Processing for the Purification of Reactive Porous Materials
Published on: May 15, 2015
Dinitrogen as a Universal Electron Acceptor in Solid-State Chemistry: An Example of Uncommon Metallic Compounds
Maxim Bykov1,2, Kelin R Tasca1,2, Iskander G Batyrev3
1Department of Mathematics, Howard University, Washington, DC 20059, United States.
Abstract:
With the exception of lithium, alkali metals do not react with elemental nitrogen either at ambient conditions or at elevated temperatures, requiring the search for alternative synthetic routes to their nitrogen-containing compounds. Here using a controlled decomposition of sodium azide (NaN3) at high pressure conditions, we synthesize two novel compounds, Na3(N2)4 and NaN2, both containing dinitrogen anions. NaN2 synthesized at 4 GPa might be the common intermediate in high-pressure solid-state metathesis reactions, where NaN3 is used as a source of nitrogen, while Na3(N2)4 opens a new class of compounds, where [N2] units accommodate a noninteger formal charge of 0.75-. This finding can dramatically extend the expected compositions in other group 1 and 2 metal-nitrogen systems. Electronic structure calculations show the metallic character for both compounds.
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