Melon (chemistry)

In chemistry, melon is a compound of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen of still somewhat uncertain composition, consisting mostly of heptazine units linked and closed by amine groups and bridges (–NH–, =NH, –NH2, etc.).

In 1937 Linus Pauling showed by x-ray crystallography that the structure of melon and related compounds contained fused triazine rings.

[5] In 2009, Xinchen Wang and others observed that melon acts as a catalyst for the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen, or converting CO2 back into fuel, using energy from sunlight.

It was the first metal-free photocatalyst, and it was seen to enjoy a number of advantages over previous compounds, including low cost of material, simple synthesis, negligible toxicity, exceptional chemical and thermal stability.

[7][2] Another wave of interest for melon happened in the 1990s, when theoretical computations suggested that β-C3N4 — a hypothetical carbon nitride compound structurally analogous to β-Si3N4 —might be harder than diamond.