How does nitride ion react with water?

Answer 1

The Nitride ion N3- will be protonated very quickly in an aqueous solution and is therefor not found in solution under ordinary circumstances. If you look at a molecule of water you see that the electrons spend the majority of the time near the oxygen atom, which means the two hydrogen atoms are (for demonstrative reasons) bare protons. A single hydrogen ion would be pulled from the water molecule and would bond with the N3- ion. Under normal circumstances the reaction should go like this:

3H2O + N3- --> 3OH- + NH3

This is an ideal reaction for the nitride ion, however, it is not likely to happen, what will more often than not happen is this:

H2O + N3- --> OH- + NH2-

THEN

H2O + NH2- --> OH-+ NH2-

THEN

R + NH2- -->RNH2

OVERALL REACTION:

R + 2H2O + N3- --> RNH2 + 2OH-

This R group could be any other element present in the solution such as a metal impurity that is capable of bonding with an amine or another hydrogen ion. The reason that the nitride will not take both hydrogen's from a water molecule is because it is much more energetically favorable to take a hydrogen from a new water molecule than it is to pull off the second hydrogen to form O2-. This can occur, but will not unless the nitride is in excess, and this simply would never happen under normal circumstances.

Edit: Added an overal reaction and fixed the charges on the second phase of the reaction.

Answer 2

gallium nitride with water? what happen, if Ga ions separate or not. or any other reaction is possible?