Overview and General Remarks

Many of the Th nitrides are more or less stable at elevated temperatures, electrically and thermally insulating, and have an extremely weak (Van Vleck) temperature-independent paramagnetism. The face-centered cubic (fee) mononitride, ThN, is an important exception. It is metallic. It has a weak temperature-independent (Pauli) paramagnetism. Subsequent comparison of the electronic properties will show many simularities between ThN and metallic Th. An appreciable metallic bonding is also indicated by anomalously large interatomic distances in ThN. 

Previous reviews of thorium nitrides are the early work in the Gmelin Handbook [13], the physical properties as tabulated by Peterson, Curtis [14], the tabulation and contributions to the thermochemical data by Rand [15], their brief mention in an engineering data tabulation of nitrides [16], and a chapter on thorium nitrides in High-Temperature Nuclear Fuel [17]. 

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