Structural properties of zinc nitride empty balls

Zinc nitride empty balls can be synthesized by the nitridation reaction of zinc powders with ammonia gas in 500 ml/min at 600 °C for 120 min. Surveys by using X-ray diffraction confirm that zinc nitride has a cubic structure with lattice constants a = 0.9788 nm. Observations by using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy show that zinc nitride is of spherical shell structure. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy tells the differences in chemical bonding states between zinc nitride and zinc oxide, which confirmed the formation of N–Zn bonds.