Caesium azide or cesium azide is an

inorganic compound In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemist ...

caesium Caesium (IUPAC spelling) (or cesium in American English) is a chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that a ...

and

nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

. It is a salt of

azide In chemistry, azide is a linear, polyatomic anion with the formula and structure . It is the conjugate base of hydrazoic acid . Organic azides are organic compounds with the formula , containing the azide functional group. The dominant applic ...

with the formula .

Structure

adopts the same structure as , , and , crystallizing in a tetragonal distorted caesium chloride structure where each azide ion coordinates to eight metal cations, and each metal cation coordinates to eight terminal N centers. When heated to 151°C, it transitions to a cubic structure.

Preparation and reactions

Caesium azide can be prepared from the neutralization reaction between

hydrazoic acid Hydrazoic acid, also known as hydrogen azide or azoimide, This also contains a detailed description of the contemporaneous production process. is a compound with the chemical formula . It is a colorless, volatile, and explosive liquid at room tem ...

and caesium hydroxide: Caesium carbonate can also be used as the base: Caesium sulfate reacts with

barium azide Barium azide is an inorganic azide with the formula . It is a barium salt of hydrazoic acid. Like most azides, it is explosive. It is less sensitive to mechanical shock than lead azide. Preparation Barium azide may be prepared by reacting sodiu ...

to form insoluble

barium sulfate Barium sulfate (or sulphate) is the inorganic compound with the chemical formula Ba SO4. It is a white crystalline solid that is odorless and insoluble in water. It occurs as the mineral barite, which is the main commercial source of barium an ...

and caesium azide: The thermal decomposition of ''in vacuo'' can be used as a method of generating high purity caesium metal:

References

{{azides Azides Caesium compounds