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Potassium cyanide

Names
IUPAC name Potassium cyanide
Identifiers
CAS Number	151-50-8
3D model (JSmol)	Interactive image
ChEBI	CHEBI:33191
ChemSpider	8681
ECHA InfoCard	100.005.267
EC Number	205-792-3
PubChem CID	9032
RTECS number	TS8750000
UNII	MQD255M2ZO
UN number	1680
CompTox Dashboard (EPA)	DTXSID0024268
InChI InChI=1S/CN.K/c1-2;/q-1;+1Key: NNFCIKHAZHQZJG-UHFFFAOYSA-N InChI=1/CN.K/c1-2;/q-1;+1Key: NNFCIKHAZHQZJG-UHFFFAOYAH
SMILES .#N
Properties
Chemical formula	KCN
Molar mass	65.12 g/mol
Appearance	White crystalline solid deliquescent
Odor	faint, bitter almond-like
Density	1.52 g/cm
Melting point	634.5 °C (1,174.1 °F; 907.6 K)
Boiling point	1,625 °C (2,957 °F; 1,898 K)
Solubility in water	71.6 g/100 ml (25 °C) 100 g/100 ml (100 °C)
Solubility in methanol	4.91 g/100 ml (20 °C)
Solubility in glycerol	soluble
Solubility in formamide	14.6 g/100 ml
Solubility in ethanol	0.57 g/100 ml
Solubility in hydroxylamine	41 g/100 ml
Acidity (pKa)	11.0
Magnetic susceptibility (χ)	−37.0·10 cm/mol
Refractive index (nD)	1.410
Thermochemistry
Std molar entropy (S298)	127.8 J K mol
Std enthalpy of formation (ΔfH298)	−131.5 kJ/mol
Hazards
GHS labelling:
Pictograms
Signal word	Danger
Hazard statements	H290, H300, H310, H330, H370, H372, H410
Precautionary statements	P260, P264, P273, P280, P284, P301+P310
NFPA 704 (fire diamond)	4 0 0
Flash point	Non-flammable
Lethal dose or concentration (LD, LC):
LD50 (median dose)	5 mg/kg (oral, rabbit) 10 mg/kg (oral, rat) 5 mg/kg (oral, rat) 8.5 mg/kg (oral, mouse)
NIOSH (US health exposure limits):
PEL (Permissible)	TWA 5 mg/m
REL (Recommended)	C 5 mg/m (4.7 ppm)
IDLH (Immediate danger)	25 mg/m
Safety data sheet (SDS)	ICSC 0671
Related compounds
Other anions	Potassium cyanate Potassium thiocyanate
Other cations	Sodium cyanide Rubidium cyanide lithium cyanide caesium cyanide
Related compounds	Hydrogen cyanide
Except where otherwise noted, data are given for materials in their standard state (at 25 °C , 100 kPa). N verify (what is  ?) Infobox references

Potassium cyanide is a compound with the formula KCN. It is a colorless salt, similar in appearance to sugar, that is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include jewellery for chemical gilding and buffing. Potassium cyanide is highly toxic, and a dose of 200 to 300 milligrams will kill nearly any human.

The moist solid emits small amounts of hydrogen cyanide due to hydrolysis (reaction with water). Hydrogen cyanide is often described as having an odor resembling that of bitter almonds.

The taste of potassium cyanide has been described as acrid and bitter, with a burning sensation similar to lye.

Production

KCN is produced by treating hydrogen cyanide with an aqueous solution of potassium hydroxide, followed by evaporation of the solution in a vacuum:

About 50,000 tons of potassium cyanide are produced yearly. For laboratory purpose it is easier to pass hydrogen cyanide through an alcoholic solution of potassium base because the crystals of potassium cyanide are not soluble in alcohol .

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:

Structure

In aqueous solution, KCN is dissociated into hydrated potassium (K) ions and cyanide (CN) ions. As a solid, KCN has structure resembling sodium chloride: with each potassium ion surrounded by six cyanide ions, and vice versa. Despite being diatomic, and thus less symmetric than chloride, the cyanide ions rotate so rapidly that 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.

Applications

KCN and sodium cyanide (NaCN) are widely used in organic synthesis for the preparation of nitriles and carboxylic acids, particularly in the von Richter reaction. It 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.

KCN is used as a photographic fixer in the wet plate collodion process. The KCN 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 KCN is still used.

In the 19th century, cyanogen soap, a preparation containing potassium cyanide, was used by photographers to remove silver stains from their hands.

Potassium gold cyanide

In gold mining, KCN forms the water-soluble salt potassium gold cyanide (or gold potassium cyanide) and potassium hydroxide from gold metal in the presence of oxygen (usually from the surrounding air) and water:

4 Au + 8 KCN + O₂ + 2 H₂O → 4 K + 4 KOH

A similar process uses NaCN to produce sodium gold cyanide (NaAu(CN₂)).

Toxicity

Potassium cyanide is a potent inhibitor of cellular respiration, acting on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase, hence blocking oxidative phosphorylation. Lactic acidosis then occurs as a consequence of anaerobic metabolism. Initially, acute cyanide poisoning causes a red or ruddy complexion in the victim because the tissues are not able to use the oxygen in the blood. The effects of potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide are identical, and symptoms of poisoning typically occur within a few minutes of ingesting the substance: the person loses consciousness, and brain death eventually follows. During this period the victim may suffer convulsions. Death is caused by histotoxic hypoxia/cerebral hypoxia. The expected LD100 dose (human) for potassium cyanide is 200–300 mg while the median lethal dose LD50 is estimated at 140 mg.

People who killed themselves, were killed, or killed someone else using potassium cyanide include:

• Viktor Meyer, 19th-century German chemist, died by suicide in 1897 after taking cyanide
• Gustav Wied, Danish novelist, poet, and playwright, in 1914
• Pritilata Waddedar, an Indian revolutionary nationalist, took cyanide in 1932 to avoid capture by Indian Imperial Police, British India
• Badal Gupta, a revolutionary from Bengal, who launched an attack on the Writers' Building in Kolkata, consumed cyanide in 1930 immediately after the attack.
• Wallace Carothers, polymer chemist who died by suicide in 1937 after battling depression for years
• Senior figures in Nazi Germany, such as Erwin Rommel, Hitler's longtime companion Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Göring
• Alan Turing, a computer scientist who died of cyanide poisoning in 1954
• Ronald Clark O'Bryan, a Texas optician who killed his son by lacing a pixy stick with potassium cyanide in 1974
• Peoples Temple, the 1978 cult suicide in (Jonestown), Guyana
• Members of the LTTE involved in the assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991
• Ramon Sampedro, Spanish tetraplegic and activist whose assisted suicide in 1998 provoked a national debate about euthanasia, and was the subject of the Oscar-winning film The Sea Inside
• Jason Altom, a promising graduate student in the lab of Nobel Prize–winning chemist EJ Corey at Harvard, died after drinking potassium cyanide in 1998
• Slobodan Praljak, a wartime general in Republic of Croatia, died by suicide by drinking from a vial containing potassium cyanide during the reading of his appeal judgment in The Hague on International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on 29 November 2017.

It is used by professional entomologists as a killing agent in collecting jars, as insects succumb within seconds to the HCN fumes it emits, thereby minimizing damage to even highly fragile specimens.

KCN can be detoxified most efficiently with hydrogen peroxide or with a solution of sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). Such solutions should be kept alkaline whenever possible so as to eliminate the possibility of generation of hydrogen cyanide:

KCN + H₂O₂ → KOCN + H₂O

KCN + NaOCl → KOCN + NaCl

References

1. ^ NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards. "#0522". National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
2. "Cyanides (as CN)". Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health Concentrations (IDLH). National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
3. "Potassium Cyanide | Cameo Chemicals | NOAA".
4. ^ Andreas Rubo, Raf Kellens, Jay Reddy, Joshua Wooten, Wolfgang Hasenpusch "Alkali Metal Cyanides" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry 2006 Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany. doi:10.1002/14356007.i01_i01
5. "Suicide note reveals taste of cyanide". 8 July 2006.
6. Not everyone, however, can smell cyanide; the ability to do so is a genetic trait.Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM): 304300
7. ലേഖകൻ, മാധ്യമം (19 December 2021). "'സയനൈഡ് ചവർപ്പാണ്... പുകച്ചിലാണ്...'; ആ 'രുചി രഹസ്യം' പുറത്തുവിട്ട മലയാളി നടന്ന വഴിയിലൂടെ | Madhyamam". www.madhyamam.com (in Malayalam). Retrieved 21 December 2021.
8. "The only taste: Cyanide is acrid". hindustantimes.com. Hindustan Times. 8 July 2006.
9. Von Wagner, Rudolf (1897). Manual of chemical technology. New York: D. Appleton & Co. pp. 474 & 477.
10. Crystallography Open Database, Structure of KCN
11. H. T. Stokes; D. L. Decker; H. M. Nelson; J. D. Jorgensen (1993). "Structure of potassium cyanide at low temperature and high pressure determined by neutron diffraction". Physical Review B (Submitted manuscript). 47 (17): 11082–11092. Bibcode:1993PhRvB..4711082S. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.47.11082. PMID 10005242..
12. J. Towler, MD. "The Silver Sunbeam (Facsimile 1864 edition, 1969)" p. 119
13. Crookes, William, ed. (10 September 1858). "Photographic Notes and Queries". The Photographic News: A Weekly Record of the Progress of Photography. 1 (1). London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin: 10–12.
14. Reports of Trials for Murder by Poisoning; by Prussic Acid, Strychnia, Antimony, Arsenic, and Aconita. Including the trials of Tawell, W. Palmer, Dove, Madeline Smith, Dr. Pritchard, Smethurst, and Dr. Lamson, with chemical introduction and notes on the poisons used, G. Lathom Browne and C. G. Stewart, London: Stevens and Sons, 1883; redistributed by Project Gutenberg.
15. "Cyanuret of potassium", Paper, Shadows and Light, Robert Douglas. Accessed 2024-01-20.
16. John Harris Trestrail III. Criminal Poisoning –Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys (2nd ed.) p. 119
17. "Top 10 Scientists who Committed Suicide". 7 October 2007.
18. "War criminal 'took cyanide' in Hague court". BBC News. 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.

External links

• International Chemical Safety Card 0671
• Hydrogen cyanide and cyanides (CICAD 61)
• National Pollutant Inventory – Cyanide compounds fact sheet
• NIOSH Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards
• CSST (Canada)
• NIST Standard Reference Database
• Institut national de recherche et de sécurité (1997). "Cyanure de sodium. Cyanure de potassium". Fiche toxicologique n° 111, Paris:INRS, 6pp. (in French)

v t e Molecules detected in outer space
Molecules	Diatomic Aluminium monochloride Aluminium monofluoride Aluminium(II) oxide Argonium Carbon cation Carbon monophosphide Carbon monosulfide Carbon monoxide Cyano radical Diatomic carbon Fluoromethylidynium Helium hydride ion Hydrogen chloride Hydrogen fluoride Hydrogen (molecular) Hydroxyl radical Iron(II) oxide Magnesium monohydride Methylidyne radical Nitric oxide Nitrogen (molecular) Imidogen Sulfur mononitride Oxygen (molecular) Phosphorus monoxide Phosphorus mononitride Potassium chloride Silicon carbide Silicon monoxide Silicon monosulfide Sodium chloride Sodium iodide Sulfanyl Sulfur monoxide Titanium(II) oxide Triatomic Aluminium(I) hydroxide Aluminium isocyanide Amino radical Carbon dioxide Carbonyl sulfide CCP radical Chloronium Diazenylium Dicarbon monoxide Disilicon carbide Ethynyl radical Formyl radical Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) Hydrogen isocyanide (HNC) Hydrogen sulfide Hydroperoxyl Iron cyanide Isoformyl Magnesium cyanide Magnesium isocyanide Methylene N2H Nitrous oxide Nitroxyl Ozone Methylidynephosphane Potassium cyanide Trihydrogen cation Sodium cyanide Sodium hydroxide Silicon carbonitride c-Silicon dicarbide SiNC Sulfur dioxide Thioformyl Thioxoethenylidene Titanium dioxide Tricarbon Water Four atoms Acetylene Ammonia Isocyanic acid Cyanoethynyl Formaldehyde Fulminic acid HCCN Hydrogen peroxide Hydromagnesium isocyanide Isocyanic acid Isothiocyanic acid Ketenyl Methylene amidogen Methyl cation Methyl radical Propynylidyne Protonated carbon dioxide Protonated hydrogen cyanide Silicon tricarbide Thioformaldehyde Tricarbon monoxide Tricarbon monosulfide Thiocyanic acid Five atoms Ammonium ion Butadiynyl Carbodiimide Cyanamide Cyanoacetylene Cyanoformaldehyde Cyanomethyl Cyclopropenylidene Formic acid Isocyanoacetylene Ketene Methane Methoxy radical Methylenimine Propadienylidene Protonated formaldehyde Silane Silicon-carbide cluster Six atoms Acetonitrile Cyanobutadiynyl radical E-Cyanomethanimine Cyclopropenone Diacetylene Ethylene Formamide HC4N Ketenimine Methanethiol Methanol Methyl isocyanide Pentynylidyne Propynal Protonated cyanoacetylene Seven atoms Acetaldehyde Acrylonitrile Vinyl cyanide Cyanodiacetylene Ethylene oxide Glycolonitrile Hexatriynyl radical Propyne Methylamine Methyl isocyanate Vinyl alcohol Eight atoms Acetic acid Aminoacetonitrile Cyanoallene Ethanimine Glycolaldehyde Hexapentaenylidene Methylcyanoacetylene Methyl formate Acrolein Nine atoms Acetamide Cyanohexatriyne Dimethyl ether Ethanol Methyldiacetylene Octatetraynyl radical Propene Ethanethiol Propionitrile N-Methylformamide Ten atoms or more Acetone Benzene Benzonitrile Buckminsterfullerene (C60, C60, fullerene, buckyball) C70 fullerene Cyanodecapentayne Ethylene glycol Ethyl formate Methyl acetate Methyl-cyano-diacetylene Methyltriacetylene Propionaldehyde Butyronitrile Pyrimidine Heptatrienyl radical
Deuterated molecules	Ammonia Ammonium ion Formaldehyde Formyl radical Heavy water Hydrogen cyanide Hydrogen deuteride Hydrogen isocyanide Propyne N2D Trihydrogen cation
Unconfirmed	Anthracene Dihydroxyacetone Methoxyethane Glycine Graphene Hemolithin H2NCO Linear C5 Naphthalene cation Phosphine Pyrene Silylidyne
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