Synthesis, Basic Properties, Structure
Although the formula is written CNCl, cyanogen chloride is a molecule with the connectivity ClCN. Carbon and chlorine are linked by a single bond, and carbon and nitrogen by a triple bond. It is a linear molecule, as are the related cyanogen halides (NCF, NCBr, NCI). Cyanogen chloride is produced by the oxidation of sodium cyanide with chlorine. This reaction proceeds via the intermediate cyanogen ((CN)2).
- NaCN + Cl2 → ClCN + NaCl
The compound trimerizes in the presence of acid to the heterocycle called cyanuric chloride.
Cyanogen chloride is slowly hydrolyzed by water to release hydrogen cyanide
- ClCN + H2O → HCN + HOCl
Read more about this topic: Cyanogen Chloride
Famous quotes containing the words basic and/or structure:
“For a novelist, a given historic situation is an anthropologic laboratory in which he explores his basic question: What is human existence?”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.”
—Sydney J. Harris (19171986)