Reaction of AgN₃ with SOCl₂:  Evidence for the Formation of Thionyl Azide, SO(N₃)₂

Pure thionyl azide SO(N₃)₂, which is the only gaseous reaction product, has been generated in a vacuum by the heterogeneous reaction of SOCl₂ vapor with AgN₃ at room temperature at a SOCl₂ vapor pressure of 1 × 10^-3 Torr. Evidence for the formation of SO(N₃)₂ is given by on line photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) combined with outer valence Green's function (OVGF) calculations with the 6-311++G(2df) basis set. The good agreement between the PES experiment and the OVGF calculation shows that SO(N₃)₂ has C₁ symmetry. The first ionization energy of SO(N₃)₂ is 10.18 eV.