S. Dickman, N. M. Senozan, and R. L. HuntCitation: The Journal of Chemical Physics 52, 2657 (1970); doi: 10.1063/1.1673354
View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1673354
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/jcp/52/5
Published by the American Institute of Physics

INTRODUCTION The solutions of calcium, strontium, and barium in liquid ammonia, unlike the solutions of alkali metals, do not directly yield the metal upon the evaporation of ammonia. Instead of a lustrous, golden-bronze colored metallic compound first forms. Although these alkaline earth ammonia compounds were first observed by Moissan1 some 70 years ago, they are far from being adequately characterized. They have been repeatedly referred to as metallic,2-5 but there exists no quantitative study of their electrical conductivity. Neither does there exist any data on their thermal conductivity, thermal expansion, reflectivity, magnetic susceptibility, or in fact, on any of their such physical properties. Considering the intriguing nature of these compounds, one might find this lack of information puzzling, but it must undoubtedly be due to the difficulties involved in preparing manageable and sufficiently stable samples. In the presence of even minute amounts of impurities, particularly iron compounds and amides, alkaline earth ammoniates decompose to amide and hydrogen.