Production and Synthesis
Hydrogen cyanide forms in at least limited amounts from many combinations of hydrogen, carbon, and ammonia. Hydrogen cyanide is currently produced in great quantities by several processes, as well as being a recovered waste product from the manufacture of acrylonitrile. In the year 2000, 732,552 tons were produced in the US.
The most important process is the Andrussow oxidation invented by Leonid Andrussow at IG Farben in which methane and ammonia react in the presence of oxygen at about 1200 °C over a platinum catalyst:
- 2 CH4 + 2 NH3 + 3 O2 → 2 HCN + 6 H2O
The energy needed for the reaction is provided by the partial oxidation of methane and ammonia.
Of lesser importance is the Degussa process (BMA process) in which no oxygen is added and the energy must be transferred indirectly through the reactor wall:
- CH4 + NH3 → HCN + 3H2
This reaction is akin to steam reforming, the reaction of methane and water to give carbon monoxide and hydrogen.
In the Shawinigan Process, hydrocarbons, e.g. propane, are reacted with ammonia:
- C3H8 + 3 NH3 → 3 HCN + 7 H2
When heated strongly, formamide decomposes to hydrogen cyanide and water vapor:
- CH(O)NH2 → HCN + H2O
In the laboratory, small amounts of HCN are produced by the addition of acids to cyanide salts of alkali metals:
- H+ + NaCN → HCN + Na+
This reaction is sometimes the basis of accidental poisonings because the acid converts a nonvolatile cyanide salt into the gaseous HCN.
Read more about this topic: Hydrogen Cyanide
Famous quotes containing the words production and, production and/or synthesis:
“Production and consumption are the nipples of modern society. Thus suckled, humanity grows in strength and beauty; rising standard of living, all modern conveniences, distractions of all kinds, culture for all, the comfort of your dreams.”
—Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934)
“To expect to increase prices and then to maintain them at a higher level by means of a plan which must of necessity increase production while decreasing consumption is to fly in the face of an economic law as well established as any law of nature.”
—Calvin Coolidge (18721933)
“The spider-mind acquires a faculty of memory, and, with it, a singular skill of analysis and synthesis, taking apart and putting together in different relations the meshes of its trap. Man had in the beginning no power of analysis or synthesis approaching that of the spider, or even of the honey-bee; but he had acute sensibility to the higher forces.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (18381918)