Synthesis and Reactivity
Nitrogen trifluoride is a rare example of a binary fluoride that can prepared directly from the elements only at very uncommon conditions, such as electric discharge. After first attempting the synthesis in 1903, Otto Ruff prepared nitrogen trifluoride by the electrolysis of a molten mixture of ammonium fluoride and hydrogen fluoride. It proved to be far less reactive than the other nitrogen trihalides nitrogen trichloride, nitrogen tribromide and nitrogen triiodide, all of which are explosive. Alone among the nitrogen trihalides it has a negative enthalpy of formation. Today, it is prepared both by direct reaction of ammonia and fluorine and by a variation of Ruff's method. It is supplied in pressurized cylinders.
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