Ammonium cyanate shows N-H...N hydrogen bonding, not N-H...O

The transformation of ammonium cyanate into urea, first studied over 170 years ago by Wohler and Liebig, has an important place in the history of chemistry. To understand the nature of this solid state reaction, knowledge of the crystal structure of ammonium cyanate is a prerequisite. Employing neutron powder diffraction, we demonstrate conclusively that, in the structure of ammonium cyanate, the NH4+ cation forms N−H···N hydrogen bonds to four cyanate N atoms at alternate corners of a distorted cube, rather than our previously proposed alternative arrangement with N−H···O hydrogen bonds to cyanate O atoms at the other four corners.