Vanadium Nitride VN

Hexammino-vanadium Trichloride, [V(NH3)6]C13.—The similarity between the trichlorides of iron and vanadium is further shown in their behaviour towards ammonia. At ordinary temperatures ammonia reacts with vanadium trichloride to produce vanadium nitride, VN, and ammonium chloride, but if liquid ammonia is poured over vanadium trichloride, a quantitative yield of a reddish-brown salt, [V(NH3)6]C13, is obtained, which recalls the hexammines of cobalt and chromium. The ammonia molecules are not, however, very firmly held, and the compound is, therefore, more comparable with the corresponding hexammine of ferric chloride, [Fe(NH3)6]Cl3. 

I. Vanadium nitride, VN, is intimately mixed with the stoichiometric quantity of V metal powder either the loose or the compacted mixture is then heated at 1100-1400°C in an Al a or Mo crucible imder Ar. 

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