Dedicated to Professor George Olah on the occasion of his 75th birthday Nitrogen and oxygen are unique among the chemical elements. In contrast to the other elements, their homonuclear single-bond energies are significantly less than one third of their triple-or one half of their double-bond energies. Consequently, homonuclear polynitrogen and polyoxygen species are thermodynamically highly unstable and the number of known compounds is very limited. Owing to the highly endothermic heats of formation, their syntheses and handling present great challenges. It is, therefore, no surprise that for oxygen only one metastable allotrope, that is, ozone, is known and for nitrogen none are known that can be isolated in bulk, while most other elements can exist in the form of many stable allotropes.Polynitrogen compounds have been studied extensively for the last two decades. In view of the great experimental difficulties, most of the efforts have been limited to theoretical studies. [1±9] The first major breakthrough in the synthesis area was achieved in 1999 with the synthesis of the N 5 þ ion in the form of a marginally stable AsF 6 À salt. [10] Subsequently, the thermally more stable N 5 þ SbF 6 À was synthesized, and the crystal structure of N 5 þ Sb 2 F 11 À was determined.[11] Based on Born±Haber cycle considerations, the stability of an ionic salt is governed by three factors: the lattice energy, the electron affinity of the cation, and the first ionization potential of the anion. Furthermore, each ion must possess a sufficiently high activation energy barrier toward decomposition. For the successful combination of N 5 þ with a poly-nitrogen anion in the form of a stable salt, an anion with a high first ionization potential is required. Theoretical calculations from our and other [1, 5, 8, 12±18] research groups predict that the unknown pentazolate anion (see Figure 1) has a first ionization potential and activation energy barrier toward decomposition that might be high enough for the formation of stable N 5 þ N 5 À . As a result, the synthesis of the N 5 À ion is hotly pursued in numerous laboratories.Although the existence and stability of substituted pentazole ring compounds have been demonstrated successfully more than 40 years ago by Huisgen and Ugi [19±22] and substituted pentazoles have been well characterized, [23±28] all attempts to prepare either the parent HN 5 molecule [29,30] or its anion, N 5 À , have so far been unsuccessful. Herein, we report the first experimental detection of this important anion.In our pursuit of the N 5 À ion, the following strategy was employed: a) the use of Ugi±Huisgen-type, substituted phenylpentazoles as starting materials; b) the transfer of maximum negative charge to the pentazole ring by the use of highly electron-donating substituents on the phenyl ring in para-position to the pentazolyl substituent to increase the aromaticity and stability of the pentazole ring, while at the same time weakening the connecting CÀN bond; c) the selective cleavage of the CÀN bond, whil...