Professor HUANG Xiaoli of Jilin University (JLU) and Professor SUN Jian of Nanjing University (NJU) recently made new progress in the research of high-pressure polynitrogen metal compounds under the guidance of TANG Aoqing, Chair Professor of JLU and Professor CUI Tian of Ningbo University (NBU).
The research result, titled All-Single Bonds Fused N18 Macro-Rings and N8 Cagelike Building Blocks Stabilized in Lanthanum Supernitrides, was published in the renowned journal J. Am. Chem. Soc. and selected as cover article.
The first authors of the article are ZHANG Yuchen, doctoral candidate at JLU, and DING Chi, postdoctoral researcher at NJU. Professor HUANG Xiaoli of JLU, Professor SUN Jian of NJU, and Professor CUI Tian of NBU are the corresponding authors.
Polymeric nitrogen has been rated as the most promising high-energy intensity material in recent years, with the potential to be applied in fields such as explosives and propellants.
The team obtained two types of lanthanum supernitrides with special polymerization structures, LaN8, by pressurizing metal lanthanum and nitrogen gas to 110 GPa in a diamond anvil and applying a temperature of 2,000 K. Statistics indicated their potential as new high-energy materials.
The team independently developed a magnetron sputtering method to load metal samples for relatively pure sample signals. This method can greatly reduce the thickness of the sample, making the high-pressure reaction more complete and more conducive to obtaining products with higher purity.
