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IUPAC name: Potassium cyanide
CAS Number: 151-50-8
EC Number: 205-792-3
APPLICATIONS
Potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide (NaCN) are widely used in organic synthesis for the preparation of nitriles and carboxylic acids, particularly in the von Richter reaction.
Potassium cyanide also finds use for the synthesis of hydantoins, which can be useful synthetic intermediates, when reacted with a carbonyl compound such as an aldehyde or ketone in the presence of ammonium carbonate.
Potassium cyanide is used as a photographic fixer in the wet plate collodion process.
The Potassium cyanide dissolves silver where it has not been made insoluble by the developer.
This reveals and stabilizes the image, making it no longer sensitive to light.
Modern wet plate photographers may prefer less toxic fixers, often opting for sodium thiosulfate, but Potassium cyanide is still used.
Potassium cyanide was extensively used by high ranking Nazi officials to commit suicide in the last days of World War II, such as Hermann Göring, who took a capsule the night before his execution.
In gold mining, Potassium cyanide forms the water-soluble salt potassium gold cyanide (or gold potassium cyanide) and potassium hydroxide from gold metal in the presence of oxygen.
Potassium cyanide is Used for gold and silver extraction, in chemical analysis, to make other chemicals, and as an insecticide.
Most Potassium cyanide is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating.
Smaller applications in our daily lives include making jewelry for chemical gilding and buffing.
Mostly Potassium cyanide is used in the gold mining industries for the extraction of gold and silver ores.
Potassium cyanide is also used in various other industries for electroplating, fumigation, chemical gilding, and buffing.
DESCRIPTION
Potassium cyanide is a compound with the formula KCN.
This colorless crystalline salt, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water.
Most Potassium cyanide is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating.
Smaller applications include jewellery for chemical gilding and buffing.
Potassium cyanide is highly toxic.
The moist solid emits small amounts of hydrogen cyanide due to hydrolysis, which smells like bitter almonds.
Not everyone, however, can smell this; the ability to do so is a genetic trait.
The taste of potassium cyanide has been described as acrid and bitter, with a burning sensation similar to lye.
Potassium cyanide releases hydrogen cyanide gas, a highly toxic chemical asphyxiant that interferes with the body’s ability to use oxygen.
Exposure to potassium cyanide can be rapidly fatal.
Potassium cyanide has whole-body (systemic) effects, particularly affecting those organ systems most sensitive to low oxygen levels: the central nervous system (brain), the cardiovascular system (heart and blood vessels), and the pulmonary system (lungs).
Potassium cyanide is used commercially for fumigation, electroplating, and extracting gold and silver from ores.
Hydrogen cyanide gas released by potassium cyanide has a distinctive bitter almond odor (others describe a musty “old sneakers smell”), but a large proportion of people cannot detect it; the odor does not provide adequate warning of hazardous concentrations.
Potassium cyanide is usually shipped as capsules, tablets, or pellets.
Potassium cyanide absorbs water from air (is hygroscopic or deliquescent).
Potassium cyanide appears as white amorphous lumps or a crystalline mass with a faint odor of bitter almonds.
Density of Potassium cyanide is 1.52 g / cm3.
Potassium cyanide is Toxic by skin absorption through open wounds, by ingestion.
Heating Potassium cyanide to decomposition produces toxic fumes.
Potassium cyanide solution is a clear colorless aqueous solution with a faint odor of bitter almonds.
Potassium cyanide solution Can contain up to 50 g of potassium cyanide per 100 g of water at room temperature.
A compound named potassium cyanide is a colorless crystalline salt, similar to sugar particles in its appearance.
Its general formula is KCN and IUPAC's name is Potassium Cyanide.
Potassium Cyanide is a very poisonous inorganic salt.
Potassium Cyanide is a highly toxic substance in nature and exposure to this element can be very much lethal for humans.
Apart from all these circumstances, Potassium cyanide is considered to be highly soluble in water.
PRODUCTION
Potassium cyanide is produced by treating hydrogen cyanide with an aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide, followed by evaporation of the solution in a vacuum:
HCN + KOH → KCN + H2O
About 50,000 tons of potassium cyanide are produced yearly.
Historical production
Before 1900 and the invention of the Castner process, potassium cyanide was the most important source of alkali metal cyanides.
In this historical process, potassium cyanide was produced by decomposing potassium ferrocyanide:
K4[Fe(CN)6] → 4 KCN + FeC2 + N2
STRUCTURE
In aqueous solution, potassium cyanide is dissociated into hydrated potassium (K+) ions and cyanide (CN−) ions.
The common form of solid potassium cyanide, stable at ambient pressure and temperature, has the same cubic crystal structure as sodium chloride, with each potassium ion surrounded by six cyanide ions, and vice versa.
Despite the cyanide ions being diatomic, and thus less symmetric than chloride, they rotate so rapidly, their time-averaged shape is spherical.
At low temperature and high pressure, this free rotation is hindered, resulting in a less symmetric crystal structure with the cyanide ions arranged in sheets.
PROPERTIES
Chemical formula: KCN
Molar mass: 65.12 g/mol
Appearance: White crystalline solid
Odor: faint, almond-like
Density: 1.52 g/cm3
Melting point: 634.5 °C
Boiling point: 1,625 °C
Solubility in water: 71.6 g/100 ml (25 °C)
Solubility in methanol: 4.91 g/100 mL (20 °C)
Solubility in glycerol: soluble
Solubility in ethanol: 0.57 g/100mL
Acidity (pKa): 11.0
Potassium
Potassium (atomic symbol: K, atomic number: 19) is a Block S, Group 1, Period 4 element with an atomic weight of 39.0983.
The number of electrons in each of Potassium's shells is [2, 8, 8, 1] and its electron configuration is [Ar] 4s1.
The potassium atom has a radius of 227.2 pm and a Van der Waals radius of 275 pm.
Potassium was discovered and first isolated by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1807.
Potassium is the seventh most abundant element on earth.
It is one of the most reactive and electropositive of all metals and rapidly oxidizes.
As with other alkali metals, potassium decomposes in water with the evolution of hydrogen because of its reacts violently with water, it only occurs in nature in ionic salts.
Potassium Bohr Model In its elemental form, potassium has a silvery gray metallic appearance, but its compounds (such as potassium hydroxide) are more frequently used in industrial and chemical applications.
The origin of the element's name comes from the English word 'potash,' meaning pot ashes, and the Arabic word qali, which means alkali.
The symbol K originates from the Latin word kalium.
SYNONYMS
POTASSIUM CYANIDE
151-50-8
Potassium cyanide (K(CN))
Cyanide of potassium
potassium;cyanide
