Detection of the Elusive Triazane Molecule (N3 H5 ) in the Gas Phase.
We report the detection of triazane (N3 H5 ) in the gas phase. Triazane is a higher order nitrogen hydride of ammonia (NH3 ) and hydrazine (N2 H4 ) of fundamental importance for the understanding of the stability of single-bonded chains of nitrogen atoms and a potential key intermediate in hydrogen-nitrogen chemistry. The experimental results along with electronic-structure calculations reveal that triazane presents a stable molecule with a nitrogen-nitrogen bond length that is a few picometers shorter than that of hydrazine and has a lifetime exceeding 6±2 μs at a sublimation temperature of 170 K. Triazane was synthesized through irradiation of ammonia ice with energetic electrons and was detected in the gas phase upon sublimation of the ice through soft vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization coupled with a reflectron-time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Isotopic substitution experiments exploiting [D3 ]-ammonia ice confirmed the identification through the detection of its fully deuterated counterpart [D5 ]-triazane (N3 D5 ).
Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii, 2545 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, HI, 96822-2275, USA.
Marko
M
Förstel
Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii, 2545 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, HI, 96822-2275, USA.
Pavlo
P
Maksyutenko
Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii, 2545 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, HI, 96822-2275, USA.
Brant M
BM
Jones
Department of Chemistry, National Dong Hwa University, Shou-Feng, Hualien, 974, Taiwan.
Bing-Jian
BJ
Sun
Department of Chemistry, National Dong Hwa University, Shou-Feng, Hualien, 974, Taiwan.
Shih-Hua
SH
Chen
Department of Chemistry, National Dong Hwa University, Shou-Feng, Hualien, 974, Taiwan. hhchang@mail.ndhu.edu.tw.
Agnes H-H
AH
Chang
Department of Chemistry, University of Hawaii, 2545 McCarthy Mall, Honolulu, HI, 96822-2275, USA. ralfk@hawaii.edu.
Ralf I
RI
Kaiser
matrix isolation; nitrogen; nitrogen chain molecules; single-bonded nitrogen; triazane