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 metho