This may be a bit abstruse for a forum like this - if it is can someone recommend a site I could visit? - I am not a professional chemist so cannot access professional sites and many professionals do not answer my emails. I think this is because I do not have an academic email address so my emails go in their spam boxes and are not read. I am however extremely knowledgable indeed and speculate endlessly - like this:
I have often wondered if the extreme compound tetrazomethane NNCNN could be synthesised - if it could it would be an excellent source of atomic carbon in the gas phase at low temperatures, unlike the involatile solid diazotetrazole NN=(CN4).
Having learnt of Karl Christe’s synthesis of the azidodiazonium ion [N5]+ I wondered if isoelectronic species could be synthesised such as [NNNCO]+, [OCNCO]+ , [HC(NN)2]+, [HC(CO)2]+ and [NNC(H)CO]+. I have found a paper on the possible stabilities of two of these, [HC(NN)2]+ and [HC(CO)2]+, in which the authors suggest that these should be isolable as solids with suitable counteranions:
Papakondylis and Mauridis J Phys Chem A 109 (29) 6549 -6554, 2005. 'Ab Initio Investigation of the Electronic Structure and Bonding of HC(N2)x + and HC(CO)x + cations'
[HC(CO)2]+ should be obtained on superacid protonation of carbon suboxide C(CO)2, but [HC(N2)2]+ might be obtained by a similar method to that Christe used for [N5]+ which is the reaction between azide ion, dinitrogen difluoride and arsenic pentafluoride:
[N3]- + N2F2 + 2AsF5 ---> [N5]+ + 2[AsF6]-
but substituting diazomethide anion for azide:
[NNCH]- + N2F2 + 2AsF5 ---> [NNC(H)NN]+ + 2 [AsF6]- (NNC(H)NN same as [HC(N2)2]+)
A third ion they do not discuss is [NNC(H)CO]+ which is protonated diazoketene - might diazomethide/ COF2/AsF5 produce this?
[NNCH]- + COF2 + 2AsF5 ---> [NNC(H)CO]+ + 2[AsF6]-
Then [NNC(H)CO]+ + base ---> [baseH]+ + NNCCO (diazoketene)
[HC(N2)]+ if preparable as salts should likewise yield tetrazomethane with base; this should be a gas or highly volatile - if it does not at once decompose! It would presumably be prepared in a stream of argon or nitrogen gas to dilute it and reduce explosion risk, and could perhaps be used to grow further diamond on a diamond substrate, with no atoms other than C being incorporated. Whether these would prove cheaper than natural diamond might be disputable!