Chemistry Nexus
by WebElements: the periodic table on the web
Titan’s methane springs
Lands, rivers and methane springs: latest images of Titan. Titan’s atmosphere is mostly nitrogen but there is also methane and many other organic compounds.
This mosaic of three frames provides unprecedented detail of the high ridge area including the flow down into a major river channel from different sources.
Mosaic of river channel and ridge area on Titan. Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
WebElements December 8th, 2009
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry, Environmental chemistry
Go to work on a terbium nitride buckyegg
An egg-shaped fullerene, or “buckyball egg” has been made and characterized by chemists in America at UC Davis (California), Virginia Tech, and Emory and Henry College in Virginia. They were trying to encapsulate terbium atoms within fullerenes but instead encapsulated terbium nitride within an egg-shaped fullerene. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja063636k]
The compound Tb3N@C84 was synthesized using an arc-discharge generator by vaporizing composite graphite rods containing a mixture of Tb4O7, graphite, and iron nitride as catalyst in a low-pressure He/N2atmosphere.
WebElements August 6th, 2006
Posted In: Chemistry, Crystallography, Nanoscience and nanotechnology
Cubic nitrogen with single N-N bonds
Everyone knows that elemental nitrogen exists in the atmosphere as dinitrogen, N2. There is a triple bond between the two nitrogen atoms. This is true – but under certain conditions, a fascinating N-N single bonded phase has been characterised.1
In 1985 it was predicted that at high pressure, nitrogen would transform to a solid with a single-bonded crystalline structure called polymeric nitrogen.
WebElements July 4th, 2004
Posted In: Chemistry, Periodic table
Tags: Nitrogen
On the Constitution of the Atmosphere
This historical document “On the Constitution of the Atmosphere” by John Dalton was presented to the Royal Society in March 1826.1
This is an interesting read for anyone and thanks to the Royal Society for its service that makes these documents available to all.
References
WebElements February 24th, 1826
Posted In: Atmospheric chemistry, Chemistry, History of chemistry
Tags: air, John Dalton, Nitrogen, Oxygen