skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Exotic stable cesium polynitrides at high pressure

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep16902· OSTI ID:1241100
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Luoyang Normal University, Luoyang (China). College of Physics and Electronic Information,; Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing (China)
  2. Luoyang Normal University, Luoyang (China). College of Physics and Electronic Information
  3. Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Washington, DC (United States). Geophysical Lab.
  4. Univ. of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK (Canada). Department of Physics and Engineering Physics; Canadian Light Sources, Inc., Saskatoon, SK (Canada)

New polynitrides containing metastable forms of nitrogen are actively investigated as potential high energy-density materials. Using a structure search method based on the CALYPSO methodology, we investigated the stable stoichiometries and structures of cesium polynitrides at high pressures. Along with the CsN3, we identified five new stoichiometric compounds (Cs3N, Cs2N, CsN, CsN2, and CsN5) with interesting structures that may be experimentally synthesizable at modest pressures (i.e., less than 50 GPa). Nitrogen species in the predicted structures have various structural forms ranging from single atom (N) to highly endothermic molecules (N2, N3 , N4, N5, N6) and chains (N). Polymeric chains of nitrogen were found in the high-pressure C2/c phase of CsN2. This structure contains a substantially high content of single N-N bonds that exceeds the previously known nitrogen chains in pure forms, and also exhibit metastability at ambient conditions. We also identified a very interesting CsN crystal that contains novel N44- anion. In conclusion, to our best knowledge, this is the first time a charged N4 species being reported. Results of the present study suggest that it is possible to obtain energetic polynitrogens in main-group nitrides under high pressure.

Research Organization:
Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Washington, DC (United States). Geophysical Lab.; Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Energy Frontier Research in Extreme Environments (EFree)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC-0001057; NA-0002006
OSTI ID:
1241100
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Vol. 5; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 49 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (50)

Synthesis and characterization of a binary noble metal nitride journal April 2004
CALYPSO: A method for crystal structure prediction journal October 2012
Charge, bond order and valence in the AB initio SCF theory journal May 1983
Cs-N (Cesium-Nitrogen) journal December 2004
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Cagelike Diamondoid Nitrogen at High Pressures journal October 2012
Ab initio studies of bonding trends journal September 1991
Polynitrogen Chemistry. Synthesis, Characterization, and Crystal Structure of Surprisingly Stable Fluoroantimonate Salts of N 5 + journal July 2001
Polymerization of nitrogen in lithium azide journal October 2013
Crystalline LiN 5 Predicted from First-Principles as a Possible High-Energy Material journal June 2015
Pressure-Induced Polymerization of Carbon Monoxide:  Disproportionation and Synthesis of an Energetic Lactonic Polymer journal May 2006
Evolving Structural Diversity and Metallicity in Compressed Lithium Azide journal September 2013
Crystal structure prediction via particle-swarm optimization journal September 2010
N 6 2+ and N 4 2+ Dications and Their N 12 and N 10 Azido Derivatives:  DFT/GIAO-MP2 Theoretical Studies 1 journal April 2001
Preparation, Crystal Structure, and Properties of Barium Pernitride, BaN2 journal August 2001
The 28-Electron Tetraatomic Molecules:  N 4 , CN 2 O, BFN 2 , C 2 O 2 , B 2 F 2 , CBFO, C 2 FN, and BNO 2 . Challenges for Computational and Experimental Chemistry journal January 1996
Ab initio studies of bonding trends journal September 1991
Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof Reply: journal January 1998
Layered single-bonded nonmolecular phase of nitrogen from first-principles simulation journal December 2005
Spiral chain O4 form of dense oxygen journal January 2012
Pressure-induced planar N6 rings in potassium azide journal March 2014
Energy storage capacity of polymeric nitrogen journal March 2006
Polymeric nitrogen journal December 1992
Metastable high-pressure single-bonded phases of nitrogen predicted via genetic algorithm journal February 2008
Experimental Detection of the Pentaazacyclopentadienide (Pentazolate) Anion, cyclo-N5− This work was funded predominantly by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, with additional support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation. The mass spectrometer instrumentation at UCSB was supported under the Army Research Office Award no. DAAD19-00-1-0026. We thank Dr. Robert Corley, Dr. Arthur Morrish, Dr. Don Woodbury, Dr. Michael Berman, and Prof. W. Kaska for their support, and Dr. Michael Gerken, Dr. Thorsten Schroer, Dr. Stefan Schneider, Dr. Ralf Haiges, Dr. Ross Wagner, and Dr. Suresh Suri for their collaboration and stimulating discussions. journal August 2002
Decomposition mechanism of the polynitrogen N5 and N6 clusters and their ions journal February 2001
A simple measure of electron localization in atomic and molecular systems journal May 1990
The crystal structures of lithium, sodium and strontium azides journal February 1968
Calculations predict a stable molecular crystal of N8 journal December 2013
Synthesis and Characterization of the Nitrides of Platinum and Iridium journal March 2006
Toward new energy-rich molecular systems: from N10 to N60 journal December 2000
Series of phase transitions in cesium azide under high pressure studied by in situ x-ray diffraction journal August 2011
SrN and SrN2: Diazenides by Synthesis under High N2-Pressure journal January 2001
Stationary points on the lowest doublet and quartet hypersurfaces of the N 3 radical: A comparison of molecular orbital and density functional approaches journal December 1996
Synthesis of Alkaline Earth Diazenides M AE N 2 (M AE = Ca, Sr, Ba) by Controlled Thermal Decomposition of Azides under High Pressure journal January 2012
Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations journal June 1976
Density-functional study of nonmolecular phases of nitrogen: Metastable phase at low pressure journal July 2003
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Hidden Thermodynamic Ground State of Calcium Diazenide journal December 2013
Novel lithium-nitrogen compounds at ambient and high pressures journal September 2015
Recent Advances in the Chemistry of N5+, N5− and High-Oxygen Compounds journal June 2007
Substitutional Alloy of Bi and Te at High Pressure journal April 2011
Polymerization of nitrogen in cesium azide under modest pressure journal July 2014
Experimental Detection of Tetranitrogen journal January 2002
N5+: A Novel Homoleptic Polynitrogen Ion as a High Energy Density Material journal July 1999
Crystal structure prediction using ab initio evolutionary techniques: Principles and applications journal June 2006
Crystal Structures of and Displacive Transitions in OsN2, IrN2, RuN2, and RhN2 journal February 2007
Novel high-pressure phase with pseudo-benzene “N 6 ” molecule of LiN 3 journal January 2013
Prediction of New Phases of Nitrogen at High Pressure from First-Principles Simulations journal September 2004
Predicted Novel High-Pressure Phases of Lithium journal January 2011

Cited By (7)

High-pressure formation of antimony nitrides: a first-principles study journal January 2020
Fe-N system at high pressure reveals a compound featuring polymeric nitrogen chains journal July 2018
The polymerization of nitrogen in Li2N2 at high pressures journal September 2018
Stable zigzag and tripodal all-nitrogen anion N 4 4− in BeN 2 journal May 2019
High energetic polymeric nitrogen sheet confined in a graphene matrix journal January 2018
Metallic and anti-metallic properties of strongly covalently bonded energetic AlN 5 nitrides journal January 2019
Fe-N system at high pressure reveals a compound featuring polymeric nitrogen chains text January 2018

Similar Records

Synthesis of Bulk BC8 Silicon Allotrope by Direct Transformation and Reduced-Pressure Chemical Pathways
Journal Article · Wed Aug 17 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Inorganic Chemistry · OSTI ID:1241100

Stable Calcium Nitrides at Ambient and High Pressures
Journal Article · Mon Jul 18 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Inorganic Chemistry · OSTI ID:1241100

Polymerization of nitrogen in cesium azide under modest pressure
Journal Article · Mon Jul 28 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Journal of Chemical Physics · OSTI ID:1241100