Hydrazoic acid, flash photolysis

Using Norrish s flash photolysis method [54], Thrush [55] examined the decomposition of hydrogen azide in the presence of an excess of inert gas. The absorption spectra characteristic of the radicals NH and NH2 were observed. He therefore suggested an alternative scheme for the decomposition of hydrazoic acid, different from that proposed by Beckmann and Dickinson [56] ... 

Tlie formation of free radical HN by decomposition of hydrazoic acid has been suggested by a number of authors since 1928 (see Vol. HI, p. 167). This was substantiated by experiments on the decomposition of HNj by the flasli photolysis of Thrush (Vol. Ill, p. 167). The formation of nitrene radicals from azides by flash photolysis was reported simultaneously and independently by Koto (56], Reiser et al. [57—59]. Reiser rationalized the reaction derived from flash pl otolysis of formation of azo compounds (5) ... 

The simplest neutral polynitrogen, the N3 radical (azide radical), has been generated as a fleeting molecule by flash photolysis of HN3 (hydrazoic acid) [1] and by reaction of HN3 with fluorine atoms [2], Being a simple free radical, there appears to be no question of its isolation as a stable substance. 

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