A significant increase of the ion yield at m/z 27 in collisions of low energy ions of N-2(+) and N+ with hydrocarbon covered room temperature or heated surfaces of tungsten, carbon fiber composite, and beryllium, not observed in analogous collisions of Ar+, is ascribed to the formation of HCN+ in heterogeneous reactions between N-2(+) or N+ and surface hydrocarbons. The formation of HCN+ in the reaction with N+ indicated an exothermic reaction with no activation barrier, likely to occur even at very low collision energies. In the reaction with N-2(+), the formation of HCN+ was observed to a different degree on these room-temperature and heated (150 and 300 degrees C) surfaces at incident energies above about 50 eV. This finding suggested an activation barrier or reaction endothermicity of the heterogeneous reaction of about 3-3.5 eV. The main process in N-2(+) or N+ interaction with the surfaces is ion neutralization; the probability of forming the reaction product HCN+ was very roughly estimated for both N-2(+) and N+ ions to about one in 10(4) collisions with the surfaces.