Synthesis of Pure Lithium Amide Nanoparticles

Deprotonation of ammonia with n-butyllithium offers a facile synthetic route to produce pure lithium amide exhibiting fine granularity, which facilitates the complete thermal decomposition to lithium imide at a relatively low temperature of 600 K. Synthesised compounds were characterised by high-resolution synchrotron X-ray diffraction, and the particle morphology of lithium amide was studied by transmission electron microscopy. The proposed methodology readily affords the production of pure lithium amide nanoparticles at both bench-top and commercial scale.