Editing Nitrous oxide (section)

==Chemical properties and reactions==
Nitrous oxide is a colourless gas with a faint, sweet odour.

Nitrous oxide supports combustion by releasing the [[Coordinate covalent bond|dipolar bonded]] oxygen radical, and can thus relight a glowing [[Splint (laboratory equipment)|splint]].

{{chem|N|2|O}} is inert at room temperature and has few reactions. At elevated temperatures, its reactivity increases. For example, nitrous oxide reacts with {{chem|link=Sodium amide|NaNH|2}} at {{convert|187|C}} to give {{chem|link=Sodium azide|NaN|3}}:
:{{chem2|2 NaNH2 + N2O -> NaN3 + NaOH + NH3 }}

This reaction is the route adopted by the commercial chemical industry to produce [[azide]] salts, which are used as detonators.<ref name="InorgChem">{{cite book|title=Inorganic Chemistry|url=https://archive.org/details/inorganicchemist00hous_159|url-access=limited|publisher=Pearson|year=2008|isbn=978-0-13-175553-6|edition=3rd|page=[https://archive.org/details/inorganicchemist00hous_159/page/n502 464]|chapter=Chapter 15: The group 15 elements|author1=Housecroft, Catherine E.|author2=Sharpe, Alan G.}}</ref>