title: Polymerization of nitrogen in cesium azide under modest pressure.
abstract: Alkali metal azides can be used as starting materials in the synthesis of polymeric nitrogen, a potential high-energy-density material. The structural evolutionary behaviors of nitrogen in CsN3 have been studied up to 200 GPa using particle swarm optimization structure search combining with density functional theory. Three stable new phases with C2/m, P21/m, and P-1 structure at pressure of 6, 13, and 51 GPa are identified for the first time. The phase transition to chain like structure (P-1 phase) occurs at a modest pressure 51 GPa, the azide ions N3 (-) (linear chains of three N atoms with covalent bonds and interact weakly with each other) begin to show remarkable polymeric N properties in the CsN3 system. Throughout the stable pressure range, the structure is metallic and consists of N atoms in sp(2) hybridizations. Our study completes the structural evolution of CsN3 under pressure and reveals that the introduced Cs atoms are responsible for the decreased synthesis pressure comparing to pure molecular nitrogen under compression.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Linyi University, Linyi 276005, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Linyi University, Linyi 276005, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jianfu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, College of Physics, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hongyang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Linyi University, Linyi 276005, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Haiqing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin