Chemistry:Magnesium nitride
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| IUPAC name
Magnesium nitride
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| Other names
trimagnesium dinitride
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3D model (JSmol)
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PubChem CID
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| Properties | |
| Mg 3N 2 | |
| Molar mass | 100.9494 g/mol |
| Appearance | greenish yellow powder |
| Density | 2.712 g/cm3 |
| Melting point | approx. 1500°C |
| Hazards[1] | |
| Safety data sheet | External MSDS |
| GHS pictograms |  
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| GHS Signal word | Danger |
| H228, H315, H319, H335 | |
| P210, P261, P280, P305+351+338, P405, P501 | |
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Other cations
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Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C [77 °F], 100 kPa). | |
 verify (what is   ?)
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| Infobox references | |
Magnesium nitride, which possesses the chemical formula Mg
3N
2, is an inorganic compound of magnesium and nitrogen. At room temperature and pressure it is a greenish yellow powder.
History
When measuring the boiling point of magnesium, Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville and Henri Caron identified that molten magnesium they distilled covered itself by "small colorless and transparent needles which are destroyed fairly quickly by transforming into ammonia and magnesia". In their 1857 publication the chemists interpreted it as a likely nitride similar to those discovered by Friedrich Wöhler and Heinrich Rose.[2]
It was indeed confirmed in 1862 when Friedrich Briegleb and Johann Georg Anton Geuther synthesized the compound on purpose and first studied it.[3]
Preparation
- By passing dry, very pure nitrogen over heated magnesium at 800–850 °C (1,470–1,560 °F) for 90 minutes:
- 3 Mg + N
2 → Mg
3N
2[4]
- By passing dry ammonia over heated magnesium at 800–850 °C (1,470–1,560 °F) for 4 hours:
- 3 Mg + 2 NH
3 → Mg
3N
2 + 3 H
2
This second method is preferred despite the additional time required due to the difficulty of fully purifying nitrogen gas to prevent the formation of unwanted oxides.[4]
Chemistry
Magnesium nitride reacts with water to produce magnesium hydroxide and ammonia gas, as do many metal nitrides.
- Mg
3N
2(s) + 6 H
2O(l) → 3 Mg(OH)
2(aq) + 2 NH
3(g)
In fact, when magnesium is burned in air, some magnesium nitride is formed in addition to the principal product, magnesium oxide.
Thermal decomposition of magnesium nitride gives magnesium and nitrogen gas (at 700-1500 °C).
At high pressures, the stability and formation of new nitrogen-rich nitrides (N/Mg ratio equal or greater to one) were suggested and later discovered.[5][6][7] These include the Mg
2N
4 and MgN
4 solids which both become thermodynamically stable near 50 GPa.[8] The Mg
2N
4 is composed of exotic cis-tetranitrogen N4−
4 species with N-N bond orders close to one. This Mg
2N
4 compound was recovered to ambient conditions, along with the N4−
4 units, marking only the fourth polynitrogen entity bulk stabilized at ambient conditions.
Uses and history
When isolating argon, William Ramsay passed dry air over copper to remove oxygen and over magnesium to remove the nitrogen, forming magnesium nitride.
Magnesium nitride was the catalyst in the first practical synthesis of borazon (cubic boron nitride).[9]
Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. was trying to convert the hexagonal form of boron nitride into the cubic form by a combination of heat, pressure, and a catalyst. He had already tried all the logical catalysts (for instance, those that catalyze the synthesis of diamond), but with no success.
Out of desperation and curiosity (he called it the "make the maximum number of mistakes" approach[10]), he added some magnesium wire to the hexagonal boron nitride and gave it the same pressure and heat treatment. When he examined the wire under a microscope, he found tiny dark lumps clinging to it. These lumps could scratch a polished block of boron carbide, something only diamond was known to do.
From the smell of ammonia, caused by the reaction of magnesium nitride with the moisture in the air, he deduced that the magnesium metal had reacted with the boron nitride to form magnesium nitride, which was the true catalyst.
Magnesium nitride has also been applied to synthesize aluminum nitride nanocrystals, cubic boron nitride and nitrides of aluminum and Group 3 [11] It has also been proposed as an intermediate in a fossil-fuel-free nitrogen fixation process.[12]
References
- ↑ "Summary of Classification and Labelling". https://echa.europa.eu/information-on-chemicals/cl-inventory-database/-/discli/details/68017.
- ↑ s:fr:Page:Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences, tome 044, 1857.djvu/406
- ↑ Briegleb, Fr.; Geuther, A. (1862). "Ueber das Stickstoffmagnesium und die Affinitäten des Stickgases zu Metallen" (in de). Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie 123 (2): 228–241. doi:10.1002/jlac.18621230212. ISSN 1099-0690. https://books.google.com/books?id=netSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA228.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ehrlich, P. (December 1, 1963). "Section 17: Alkaline Earth Metals". in Brauer, Georg (in en). Handbook of Preparative Inorganic Chemistry 1 (Second ed.). New York, London: Academic Press. pp. 916-917. ISBN 978-0-12-126601-1. https://archive.org/details/Handbook_of_Preparative_Inorganic_Chemistry_1_2_Brauer/page/n939/mode/2up. Retrieved 29 March 2025.
- ↑ Yu, Shuyin; Huang, Bowen; Zeng, Qingfeng; Oganov, Artem R.; Zhang, Litong; Frapper, Gilles (June 2017). "Emergence of Novel Polynitrogen Molecule-like Species, Covalent Chains, and Layers in Magnesium–Nitrogen Mg x N y Phases under High Pressure". The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 121 (21): 11037–11046. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b00474. ISSN 1932-7447.
- ↑ Wei, Shuli; Li, Da; Liu, Zhao; Li, Xin; Tian, Fubo; Duan, Defang; Liu, Bingbing; Cui, Tian (2017). "Alkaline-earth metal (Mg) polynitrides at high pressure as possible high-energy materials". Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 19 (13): 9246–9252. doi:10.1039/C6CP08771J. ISSN 1463-9076. PMID 28322368. Bibcode: 2017PCCP...19.9246W.
- ↑ Xia, Kang; Zheng, Xianxu; Yuan, Jianan; Liu, Cong; Gao, Hao; Wu, Qiang; Sun, Jian (2019-04-25). "Pressure-Stabilized High-Energy-Density Alkaline-Earth-Metal Pentazolate Salts". The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 123 (16): 10205–10211. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b12527. ISSN 1932-7447.
- ↑ Laniel, Dominique; Winkler, Bjoern; Koemets, Egor; Fedotenko, Timofey; Bykov, Maxim; Bykova, Elena; Dubrovinsky, Leonid; Dubrovinskaia, Natalia (December 2019). "Synthesis of magnesium-nitrogen salts of polynitrogen anions". Nature Communications 10 (1): 4515. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12530-w. ISSN 2041-1723. PMID 31586062. Bibcode: 2019NatCo..10.4515L.
- ↑ R. H. Wentorf, Jr. (March 1961). "Synthesis of the Cubic Form of Boron Nitride". Journal of Chemical Physics 34 (3): 809–812. doi:10.1063/1.1731679. Bibcode: 1961JChPh..34..809W.
- ↑ Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. (October 1993). "Discovering a Material That's Harder Than Diamond". R&D Innovator. http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/51-100/article61_body.html.
- ↑ Zong, Fujian; Meng, Chunzhan; Guo, Zhiming; Ji, Feng; Xiao, Hongdi; Zhang, Xijian; Ma, Jin; Ma, Honglei (2010). "Synthesis and characterization of magnesium nitride powder formed by Mg direct reaction with N2". _Journal of Alloys and Compounds 508 (1): 172–176. doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2010.07.224.
- ↑ Hu, Yang; Chen, George Z.; Zhuang, Lin; Wang, Zhivong; Jin, Xianbo (2021). "Indirect electrosynthesis of ammonia from nitrogen and water by a magnesium chloride cycle at atmospheric pressure". Cell Reports Physical Science 2 (5). doi:10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100425. ISSN 2666-3864. Bibcode: 2021CRPS....200425H.
Further reading
- Wu, P.; Tiedje, T. (2018). "Molecular beam epitaxy growth and optical properties of Mg3N2 films". Applied Physics Letters (AIP) 113 (8): 082101. doi:10.1063/1.5035560. Bibcode: 2018ApPhL.113h2101W.
| NH3 | He(N2)11 | ||||||||||||||||
| Li3N | Be3N2 | BN | β-C3N4 g-C3N4 |
N2 | NxOy | NF3 | Ne | ||||||||||
| Na3N | Mg3N2 | AlN | Si3N4 | PN P3N5 |
SxNy SN S4N4 |
NCl3 | Ar | ||||||||||
| K3N | Ca3N2 | ScN | TiN | VN | CrN Cr2N |
MnxNy | FexNy | CoN | Ni3N | CuN | Zn3N2 | GaN | Ge3N4 | As | Se | NBr3 | Kr |
| Rb3N | Sr3N2 | YN | ZrN | NbN | β-Mo2N | Tc | Ru | Rh | PdN | Ag3N | CdN | InN | Sn | Sb | Te | NI3 | Xe |
| Cs3N | Ba3N2 | Hf3N4 | TaN | WN | Re | Os | Ir | Pt | Au | Hg3N2 | TlN | Pb | BiN | Po | At | Rn | |
| Fr3N | Ra3N | Rf | Db | Sg | Bh | Hs | Mt | Ds | Rg | Cn | Nh | Fl | Mc | Lv | Ts | Og | |
| ↓ | |||||||||||||||||
| La | CeN | Pr | Nd | Pm | Sm | Eu | GdN | Tb | Dy | Ho | Er | Tm | Yb | Lu | |||
| Ac | Th | Pa | UN | Np | Pu | Am | Cm | Bk | Cf | Es | Fm | Md | No | Lr | |||
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