Magnesium nitride is an inorganic compound, the chemical formula is Mg3N2, belongs to the cubic crystal system, at room temperature pure magnesium nitride is yellow-green powder but contains a part of the magnesium oxide impurities magnesium nitride is gray. Magnesium nitride, like many metal nitrides, reacts with water to produce ammonia, which is often used as a catalyst.
What does magnesium nitride look like?
Magnesium nitride is often described as yellow, and none of us have ever seen a yellow residue after the first heat. Students usually notice the absence of yellow products and either ask or silently skip the second step, with no significant decrease.
Is magnesium nitride soluble in water?
Magnesium nitrate is a highly water-soluble source of crystalline magnesium that is compatible with nitrates and low (acidic) pH compounds. Magnesium nitrate compounds are generally soluble in water. Nitrate substances are also oxidants.
Magnesium nitride application
Magnesium nitride can be used as a catalyst for the synthesis of cubic boron nitride, which was used in the first successful synthesis.
In 1957, the chemist Robert Wentorf was trying to convert hexagonal boron nitride into cubic boron nitride. He tried heating, pressurizing, using catalysts, and various combinations of the above conditions. He tried all theoretically possible catalysts (such as those used in diamond synthesis), but nothing worked.
Later, out of curiosity and in a desperate venture (the aim, he says, was simply to "increase the number of false attempts"), he applied the same pressure and heat treatment but added magnesium to hexagonal boron nitride . When the magnesium was examined under a microscope, it was found to have tiny dark lumps on it that could create scratches on polished boron carbide, the only substance known to do so at the time was diamond.
Because of the smell of ammonia (produced by the reaction of magnesium nitride with moist air), Wentorf deduced that the reaction of magnesium and boron nitride produced magnesium nitride, which acted as a catalyst to convert hexagonal boron nitride into cubic boron nitride.
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