One pot synthesize cubic polymeric nitrogen at ambient

The study is led by Prof. Changqing Jin from Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences(IOPCAS). A simple thermal treatment method for preparing polymeric nitrogen materials at ambient conditions by using azides as precursors was reported.

Synthesizing cubic nitrogen is a century long sought for energy materials. However it can usually only be achieved at 100GP (1 million atmosphere) extremely high pressure & thousand degree high temperature. The high pressure cannot be recovered to ambient conditions Recently researchers at IOPCAS successfully prepared stable polymeric nitrogen materials at ambient conditions using azides as precursors through a thermal treatment process. A strong characteristic Raman vibrational peak of N-N single bonds was observed in the polymerized sample, which is consistent with the cubic gauche structure of polymeric nitrogen. Thermal stability studies revealed that the prepared polymeric nitrogen materials start to decompose at ~480°C, accompanied by heat release. After being stored in air for a month, the material remained almost unchanged, indicating its good stability. This technique stabilizes the polymeric nitrogen materials at ambient pressure conditions, and the yield is significantly higher than that of polymeric nitrogen materials prepared by high pressure methods.

The process is easy to operate and exhibits good experimental reproducibility. With further development and improvement, it is promising for application in the scale up preparation of polymeric nitrogen materials. 

See the article:

A facile route to synthesize cubic gauche polymeric nitrogen, Science Bulletin (2024), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2024.11.004

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