Discovery of Elusive 'Black' Nitrogen Structure Finally Solves Chemistry Mystery - ScienceAlert

When it comes to putting the lighter elements of the periodic table under high pressure, nitrogen seems to be the odd one out.

In some families, when alternative physical forms - allotropes - of the top element are created under pressure, they display similar structural properties to heavier elements lower down in the group, but under normal conditions, no excessive pressure needed.

Its family contains nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth and moscovium.

In previous high-pressure experiments, nitrogen exhibited no structures similar to any of those elements.

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth in Germany have developed a new method for measuring nitrogen under high pressure.

The material the researchers found wasn't structurally similar to nitrogen family elements, but nitrogen family allotropes.

In particular, an allotrope of phosphorus called black phosphorus, but also allotropes of arsenic and antimony called black arsenic and black antimony.