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CHAPTER IX. 



DIAZO-COMPOUNDS DIAZOBENZENE NITRATE. 



1. GENERAL REMARKS. 



1. NITROGENOUS organic compounds are derived from mineral 

 substances containing nitrogen by their combustion with non- 

 nitrogenous substances, this combustion being accompanied by 

 the separation of the elements of water. 1 



We thus obtain either derivatives from the hydrogenated 

 compounds of nitrogen, such as those from ammonia, alkalis, 

 and amides, which were discussed in Chapter VI., and those 

 from hydroxylamine, with which we have nothing to do at this 

 point, or derivatives from oxygenated compounds of nitrogen, 

 such as the nitric derivatives, i.e. the nitric ethers and nitro- 

 compounds discussed in Chapter VIII. ; to these we may add, on 

 the same principle, nitrous derivatives, nitrous ethers, nitroso- 

 compounds, not as yet used as explosive substances, and 

 hyponitrous derivatives, hardly known. 



2. The hydrogenated and oxygenated compounds of nitrogen 

 may also be associated two and two, three and three, etc., in 

 the formation of the same organic derivative ; they form bodies 

 of complex function, which are designated by the names diazo-, 

 triazo-, etc., derivatives. 



Now, compounds of this order seem to be called upon to play 

 some part in the application of explosive substances. Let us 

 take the simplest of them, viz. those derived from ammonia 

 and nitrous acid, associated simultaneously with the same 

 organic compound. Such a one is diazobenzene, derived from 

 phenol and the two above-mentioned nitrogenous compounds 



C 6 H 6 + HN0 2 + NH 3 - 3H 2 

 Such a body contains the nitrogenous residues both of ammonia 



1 " Trait^ &mentaire de Chimie Organique," by MM. Berthelot and 

 Jungfleisch, torn. ii. p. 313. 1881. Dunod. 



