Pathways to Recovering Single-Bonded Nitrogen at Ambient Conditions: High Pressure Studies of Molecular and Ionic Azides

Abstract

Working towards the goal of recovering single-bonded nitrogen at ambient conditions, the approach taken in this work is to subject nitrogen-rich molecular and ionic azides (specifically, cyanuric triazide and ammonium azide) to high pressures to induce transitions to phases that contain single-bonded nitrogen. The samples were subjected to extreme pressures using a diamond anvil cell and subsequently studied using high-resolution synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction and vibrational Raman spectroscopy. The experimental results indicate that both cyanuric triazide and ammonium azide undergo a pressure-induced first order structural phase transition at 30 and 3.0 GPa, respectively. The analyses and characterizations of these dense energetic materials are discussed in detail, and will be used to explore the possibility of recovering single-bonded nitrogen at ambient conditions.