All-nitrogen chemistry: how far are we from N-60?

摘要

Two hundred years of research have produced only a handful of synthesized all-nitrogen molecules and ions but a lot of stable N-n candidates are waiting to be detected. Experimentally, besides the long-known neutrals N-2 and linear-N-3 there are recent reports of N-4 and cyclic-N-3 production. In the ions, N-5(+) and N-5(-) have been reported. Ongoing theoretical work has predicted species like N-4, N-6, N-8, N-10 and even N-60 to be stable. We review the work that has been done recently in this area in both experiment and theory.