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Magnesium nitride

 
Magnesium Nitride

 
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Magnesium nitride
 
 
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Magnesium nitride, Mg3N2, is an inorganic compound
Inorganic compound

Traditionally, inorganic compounds are considered to be of a mineral, not biological, origin. Complementarily, most organic compounds are traditionally viewed as being of biological origin....
 of magnesium
Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, atomic weight 24.3050 and common oxidation number +2.Magnesium, an alkaline earth metal, is the ninth most abundance of the chemical elements in the universe by mass....
 and nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
. At room temperature and pressure it is a greenish yellow powder. It reacts with water to produce ammonia
Ammonia

Ammonia is a chemical compound with the chemical formula nitrogenhydrogen. It is normally encountered as a gas with a characteristic pungent odor....
 gas, as do many metal nitride
Nitride

In chemistry a nitride is a compound of nitrogen with a less electronegative element where nitrogen has an oxidation state of -3. Note that there are exceptions to this naming convention, the nitrides of hydrogen, NH3 and carbon, 2, are called ammonia and cyanogen respectively and that the nitrides of chlorine, bromine,...
s.

Mg3N2 + 6H2O ? 3Mg(OH)2 + 2NH3


Magnesium Nitride can be produced by burning magnesium metal in a pure nitrogen atmosphere.

3Mg + N2 ? Mg3N2


In fact, when magnesium is burned in air, some magnesium nitride is formed in addition to the principal product, magnesium oxide
Magnesium oxide

Magnesium oxide, or magnesia, is a white solid mineral that occurs naturally as periclase and is a source of magnesium . It has an empirical formula of ....
.

Uses
Magnesium nitride was the catalyst in the first practical synthesis of borazon
Borazon

Borazon, a boron nitride allotrope, is the fourth hardest substance, after aggregated diamond nanorods, ultrahard fullerite, and diamond, and the third hardest artificial material....
 (cubic boron nitride
Boron nitride

Boron nitride is a binary compound, consisting of equal numbers of boron and nitrogen atoms. Its empirical formula is therefore BN. Boron nitride is isoelectronic with carbon and, like carbon, boron nitrides exists as various Polymorphism , one of which is analogous to diamond and one analogous to graphite....
).

Robert H. Wentorf, Jr.
Robert H. Wentorf, Jr.

Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. was a staff scientist at General Electric Corporate Research and Development Laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y. and a professor of chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y....
 was trying to convert the hexagonal form of boron nitride into the cubic form by a combination of heat, pressure, and a catalyst.






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Magnesium nitride, Mg3N2, is an inorganic compound
Inorganic compound

Traditionally, inorganic compounds are considered to be of a mineral, not biological, origin. Complementarily, most organic compounds are traditionally viewed as being of biological origin....
 of magnesium
Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, atomic weight 24.3050 and common oxidation number +2.Magnesium, an alkaline earth metal, is the ninth most abundance of the chemical elements in the universe by mass....
 and nitrogen
Nitrogen

Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N and atomic number 7 and atomic mass 14.00674?. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78% by volume of Earth's atmosphere....
. At room temperature and pressure it is a greenish yellow powder. It reacts with water to produce ammonia
Ammonia

Ammonia is a chemical compound with the chemical formula nitrogenhydrogen. It is normally encountered as a gas with a characteristic pungent odor....
 gas, as do many metal nitride
Nitride

In chemistry a nitride is a compound of nitrogen with a less electronegative element where nitrogen has an oxidation state of -3. Note that there are exceptions to this naming convention, the nitrides of hydrogen, NH3 and carbon, 2, are called ammonia and cyanogen respectively and that the nitrides of chlorine, bromine,...
s.

Mg3N2 + 6H2O ? 3Mg(OH)2 + 2NH3


Magnesium Nitride can be produced by burning magnesium metal in a pure nitrogen atmosphere.

3Mg + N2 ? Mg3N2


In fact, when magnesium is burned in air, some magnesium nitride is formed in addition to the principal product, magnesium oxide
Magnesium oxide

Magnesium oxide, or magnesia, is a white solid mineral that occurs naturally as periclase and is a source of magnesium . It has an empirical formula of ....
.

Uses


Magnesium nitride was the catalyst in the first practical synthesis of borazon
Borazon

Borazon, a boron nitride allotrope, is the fourth hardest substance, after aggregated diamond nanorods, ultrahard fullerite, and diamond, and the third hardest artificial material....
 (cubic boron nitride
Boron nitride

Boron nitride is a binary compound, consisting of equal numbers of boron and nitrogen atoms. Its empirical formula is therefore BN. Boron nitride is isoelectronic with carbon and, like carbon, boron nitrides exists as various Polymorphism , one of which is analogous to diamond and one analogous to graphite....
).

Robert H. Wentorf, Jr.
Robert H. Wentorf, Jr.

Robert H. Wentorf, Jr. was a staff scientist at General Electric Corporate Research and Development Laboratory in Schenectady, N.Y. and a professor of chemical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y....
 was trying to convert the hexagonal form of boron nitride into the cubic form by a combination of heat, pressure, and a catalyst. He had already tried all the logical catalysts (for instance, those that catalyze the synthesis of diamond
Diamond

In mineralogy, diamond is the Allotropes of carbon where the carbon atoms are arranged in an isometric-hexoctahedral crystal lattice. After graphite, diamond is the second most stable form of carbon....
), but with no success.

Out of desperation and curiosity (he called it the "make the maximum number of mistakes" approach), he added some magnesium wire to the hexagonal boron nitride and gave it the same pressure and heat treatment. When he examined the wire under a microscope, he found tiny dark lumps clinging to it. These lumps could scratch a polished block of boron carbide
Boron carbide

Boron carbide is an extremely hard ceramic material used in tank armor, bulletproof vests, and numerous industrial applications. With a hardness of 9.3 on the mohs scale, it is the fifth hardest material known behind boron nitride, diamond, ultrahard fullerite, and aggregated diamond nanorods....
, something only diamond was known to do.

From the smell of ammonia, caused by the reaction of magnesium nitride with the moisture in the air, he deduced that the magnesium metal had reacted with the boron nitride to form magnesium nitride, which was the true catalyst.