title: Powder-XRD and (14) N magic angle-spinning solid-state NMR spectroscopy of some metal nitrides.
abstract: Some metal nitrides (TiN, ZrN, InN, GaN, Ca3 N2 , Mg3 N2 , and Ge3 N4 ) have been studied by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and (14) N magic angle-spinning (MAS) solid-state NMR spectroscopy. For Ca3 N2 , Mg3 N2 , and Ge3 N4 , no (14) N NMR signal was observed. Low speed (νr  = 2 kHz for TiN, ZrN, and GaN; νr  = 1 kHz for InN) and 'high speed' (νr  = 15 kHz for TiN; νr  = 5 kHz for ZrN; νr  = 10 kHz for InN and GaN) MAS NMR experiments were performed. For TiN, ZrN, InN, and GaN, powder-XRD was used to identify the phases present in each sample. The number of peaks observed for each sample in their (14) N MAS solid-state NMR spectrum matches perfectly well with the number of nitrogen-containing phases identified by powder-XRD. The (14) N MAS solid-state NMR spectra are symmetric and dominated by the quadrupolar interaction. The envelopes of the spinning sidebands manifold are Lorentzian, and it is concluded that there is a distribution of the quadrupolar coupling constants Qcc 's arising from structural defects in the compounds studied.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kempgens
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Britton
keywords: 14N; NMR spectroscopy; magic-angle spinning; metal nitrides; powder-XRD