Z. Iqbal, X. Wang, T.G. Manning
Carbomet LLC in partnership with New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and US Army ARDEC-Picatinny,
United States
Keywords: low frequency plasma synthesis, fluidized bed, , x-ray diffraction, Raman and energetic property characterization
Summary:
High pressure and temperature synthesis of cubic gauche polymeric nitrogen (PN) was carried out to produce microgram quantities under nitrogen in a diamond anvil cell under extremely high pressure and temperature in 2004 [1- M.L. Eremets et al, Nature Materials, vol. 3, p. 558, (2004)] with characterization performed in-situ by laser Raman scattering and x-ray diffraction. This was followed more than a decade later under ambient pressure using a low pressure plasma system with sodium azide precursor providing the nitrogen source coated on carbon nanotube paper [2, M. Benchafia .. Z. Iqbal et al, Nature Communications, vol.8, p. 930 (2017), US patent-“Nitriding of Carbon Nanotubes”, T.G. Manning and Z. Iqbal, US Patent 8,317,978B1 (November 27, 2012). ; H. Huang .... Z. Iqbal, X. Wang et al, Catalysis Today vol. 409, p. 149 (2023)] and characterization performed using milligram quantities by ex-situ Raman and x-ray diffraction. In this work PN was found to provide dual use as a fuel cell catalyst. Further refinement and confirmation of the low pressure plasma process using potassium azide instead of its sodium salt, was conducted by a Chinese academic group in 2023 [3, Y. Xu et al, Science Advances, vol. 10, eadq 5299 (2023)]. The group also obtained the first results on the remarkable energetic properties of PN. In the proposed work we plan to perform scaled up PN production by using the plasma process in a fluidized bed constructed at the facilities of the US Army (ARDEC-Picatinny) in collaboration with T.G. Manning.