A Laboratory Preparation of High-Purity Calcium Cyanamide.

Calcium cyanamide is an important fertilizer and a chemical precursor. However, its large scale synthesis is extremely energy intensive via the historical Frank-Caro synthesis of fixing atmospheric nitrogen with calcium carbide at an elevated temperature, and the product material contains a large number of impurities. In this work, we prepare calcium cyanamide in a purity higher than that achievable by the Frank-Caro route in a convenient laboratory method.