Sulfuryl diazide or sulfuryl azide is a chemical compound with the molecular formula SO2(N3)2. It was first described in the 1920s when its reactions with benzene and p-xylene were studied by Theodor Curtius and Karl Friedrich Schmidt.[1][2][3] The compound is reported as having "exceedingly explosive, unpredictable properties" and "in many cases very violent explosions occurred without any apparent reason".[1]
It was not until 2011 that sulfuryl diazide was isolated in a pure enough state to be fully characterized.[4] It was characterized by infrared and Raman spectroscopy; its structure in the solid state was determined by x-ray crystallography.[4] Its melting point is -15 °C.[4] It was prepared by the reaction of sulfuryl chloride (SO2Cl2) with sodium azide (NaN3) using acetonitrile as solvent:
^ abCurtius, Theodor; Schmidt, Friedrich (1922). "Action of sulfuryl azide, N3SO2N3, on p-xylene". Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft B. 55B: 1571–1581.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Schmidt, Friedrich (1922). "Action of sulfuryl azide on benzene". Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft B. 55B: 1581–1583. doi:10.1002/cber.19220550611.
^Schmidt, K. F. (1925). "Action of sulfuryl azide on benzene". Berichte der Deutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft B. 58B: 2409–2412. doi:10.1002/cber.19250581027.
^ abcXiaoqing Zeng, Helmut Beckers, Eduard Bernhardt, and Helge Willner (2011). "Synthesis and Characterization of Sulfuryl Diazide, O2S(N3)2". Inorg. Chem. 50 (17): 8679–8684. doi:10.1021/ic201294b. PMID21815651.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Xiaodong Zou, Jiaqi Zou, Lizheng Yang, Guigen Li, and Hongjian Lu (2017). "Thermal Rearrangement of Sulfamoyl Azides: Reactivity and Mechanistic Study". J. Org. Chem. 82 (9): 4677–4688. doi:10.1021/acs.joc.7b00308. PMID28414236.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)