Sodium Azide Manufacturer & Supplier

BÖRÜ Defense is a manufacturer and supplier of Sodium Azide, serving defence industry customers worldwide from Karatay/Konya, TÜRKİYE. Every delivery comes with a certificate of analysis and a safety data sheet, together with the export documentation its destination requires.

What is Sodium Azide?

Sodium azide is a white to colorless crystalline solid that is highly soluble in water and is used as a preservative in aqueous laboratory reagents and biologic fluids and in automobile airbags as a gas generator. It has also been investigated for use as an herbicide, insecticide, nematocide, fungicide, and bacteriocide and is used in the manufacturing of rubber, latex, wine, and Japanese beer, and as a chemical intermediate in lead azide production. Its use in automotive airbags has not resulted in sodium azide poisoning, but it has rarely caused relatively minor chemical burns by producing nitrogen gas and sodium oxide; the latter reacts with water to form corrosive sodium hydroxide.

Laboratory Uses

Sodium azide is used as a source of azide anion which is a strong nucleophile that readily displaces suitable leaving groups. Azide functionalized molecules can undergo a number of transformations including copper-catalyzed [2+3] cyclocondensation with terminal alkynes and the Staudinger Reaction. Sodium azide is also commonly used as a preservative in many biochemical solutions.

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Sodium Azide Manufacturer

Why choose us for sodium azide?

• Defence-Grade Laboratory
• Experience
• High Quality
• Right on Time

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History of Sodium Azide

The chemistry of azides goes back to the German chemist Theodor Curtius, who discovered hydrazoic acid in 1890 and went on to describe its salts. Sodium azide soon became the most practical member of the family, because it is a stable, water-soluble solid that can be stored and shipped far more safely than the free acid or the heavy-metal azides. Routes suited to larger-scale production were described within a few years.

Demand grew in the early twentieth century, when lead azide began to replace mercury fulminate in detonators and sodium azide became its usual starting material. A second wave came with automotive airbags, where it served as the gas-generating substance from the 1970s through the 1990s. Since then, airbag makers have largely moved to azide-free gas generants because of concerns about toxicity and end-of-life disposal.

What are the Uses of Sodium Azide?

In the defence sector, sodium azide is mainly a precursor. It is the usual source of the azide ion for lead azide and related initiating substances used in detonators and fuzes. It has also been used as a nitrogen gas source in inflatable safety systems, such as aircraft evacuation slides.

Civil uses are broader. The pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries use it to build nitrogen-rich ring systems; tetrazole-containing medicines are a well-known example. Hospitals and diagnostic manufacturers rely on dilute solutions to keep reagents, buffers and antibody stocks free of microbial growth. In biochemical research it serves as a metabolic inhibitor, since it blocks a key enzyme of cell respiration. Older airbag inflators still present in vehicles contain it as well, which matters for recycling and scrapping operations.

Advantages of Sodium Azide

• Unlike the heavy-metal azides, it is not sensitive to ordinary shock or friction and can be kept as a stable solid under normal storage conditions.
• It dissolves readily in water, which makes accurate dosing and clean processing straightforward.
• Its decomposition releases nitrogen, a non-toxic and non-flammable gas, which explains its long service in gas generators.
• It is the most direct and economical source of the azide ion, giving access to a wide range of inorganic and organic azides.
• As a preservative it is effective against many bacteria at very low concentrations.
• It has a long shelf life when it is kept dry, sealed and away from acids and metals.

Disadvantages of Sodium Azide

• It is highly toxic if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. It blocks cellular respiration in a way comparable to cyanide, and there is no specific antidote.
• Contact with acids releases hydrazoic acid, a volatile substance that is both very toxic and explosive.
• It reacts with lead, copper and some other metals to form shock-sensitive metal azides. For this reason solutions must never be poured down drains, where such deposits can build up in the pipework.
• It decomposes violently when strongly heated, so it must be kept away from heat sources and fire.
• It is very toxic to aquatic life, and residues, rinse water and empty packaging have to be treated as hazardous waste.
• It is transported as a toxic dangerous good, workplace exposure limits apply, and suppliers may check the end use because it is a precursor to initiating explosives.

Sodium Azide specifications

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Page last reviewed:2026-09-17