On the influence of the nature of the iron(III) salt catalyst precursor for the preparation of sodium amide

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.crci.2010.11.008

Our recent experiments, for the formation of sodium amide from liquid ammonia and sodium metal, revealed the necessity to employ Fe(NO ₃)₃?9H₂O as the catalyst precursor, and not FeCl₃. In the presence of FeCl₃, we observed several times the ignition of the mixture during the hydrolysis, and the desired product was not obtained.