Elusive Diazirinone, N₂CO

Abstract

In a flash: Diazirinone, N2CO, a mixed dimer of the two most strongly bonded diatomic molecules N2 and CO, has been prepared by low-pressure pyrolysis of carbonyl diazide, OC(N3)2, and trapped at 77 K as a yellow solid. It was characterized by IR (gas-phase and matrix-isolation) spectroscopy, and its structure, which retains the NN and CO bonds, was unambiguously confirmed by the vibrational pattern of the two distinct 15N isotopologues.