Nitrogen trichloride
- Formula: NCl3
- Hill system formula: Cl3N1
- CAS registry number: [10025-85-1]
- Formula weight: 120.365
- Class: chloride
- Colour: yellow
- Appearance: liquid, danger!: explosive
- Melting point: -40°C
- Boiling point: 71°C
- Density: 1650 kg m-3
The following are some synonyms of nitrogen trichloride:
- nitrogen trichloride
- nitrogen(III) chloride
- nitrogen chloride
The oxidation number of nitrogen in nitrogen trichloride is 3.
Synthesis
(NH4)2SO4 + 3Cl2 → NCl3 + 3HCl + NH4SO4
Nitrogen(III) trichloride (explosive!) may be made, with care, in the laboratory by the reaction between ammonium sulphate and chlorine gas. The product is extractable into an organic layer such as carbon tetrachloride before filtering and drying the orgasnic fraction. It is unwise to concentrate the product further than about 20% because of the risk of explosion.
Solid state structure
- Geometry of nitrogen:
- Prototypical structure:
Element analysis
The table shows element percentages for NCl3 (nitrogen trichloride).
| Element | % |
|---|---|
| Cl | 88.36 |
| N | 11.64 |
Isotope pattern for NCl3
The chart below shows the calculated isotope pattern for the formula NCl3 with the most intense ion set to 100%.
References
The data on these compounds pages are assembled and adapted from the primary literature and several other sources including the following.
- R.T. Sanderson in Chemical Periodicity, Reinhold, New York, USA, 1960.
- N.N. Greenwood and A. Earnshaw in Chemistry of the Elements, 2nd edition, Butterworth, UK, 1997.
- F.A. Cotton, G. Wilkinson, C.A. Murillo, and M. Bochmann, in Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, John Wiley & Sons, 1999.
- A.F. Trotman-Dickenson, (ed.) in Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry, Pergamon, Oxford, UK, 1973.
- R.W.G. Wyckoff, in Crystal Structures, volume 1, Interscience, John Wiley & Sons, 1963.
- A.R.West in Basic solid state chemistry Chemistry, John Wiley & Sons, 1999.
- A.F. Wells in Structural inorganic chemistry, 4th edition, Oxford, UK, 1975.
- J.D.H. Donnay, (ed.) in Crystal data determinative tables, ACA monograph number 5, American Crystallographic Association, USA, 1963.
- D.R. Lide, (ed.) in Chemical Rubber Company handbook of chemistry and physics, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA, 77th edition, 1996.
- J.W. Mellor in A comprehensive treatise on inorganic and theoretical chemistry, volumes 1-16, Longmans, London, UK, 1922-1937.
- J.E. Macintyre (ed.) in Dictionary of inorganic compounds, volumes 1-3, Chapman & Hall, London, UK, 1992.