The dimers of cyanamide

Ab initio calculations have been performed on various dimeric forms of cyanamide. The “nondissociative” dimerization of cyanamide leads to cyclic molecules all of which are unstable with respect to cyanamide. However, the molecules produced by “dissociative” dimerization are stable relative to cyanamide. Dicyandiamide is found to be the most stable of nine dimeric configurations.