video tutorial Copper (I) cyanide preparation

Name: video tutorial - Copper (I) cyanide preparation
Uploaded: 2025-12-11T09:03:44.255Z
Duration: 14 min 34 s
Description: So here's the starting material for making cyanide via this method....anhydrous because otherwise the water content with react with the sodium and

Topic: an experiment to synthesize alkali cyanides from anhydrous potassium ferrocyanide and sodium metal, yielding a fused mass containing metallic iron and mixed Na/K cyanide with cyanate and hydroxide impurities; cautions about the deadly nature of cyanides.
Starting material: strictly dry anhydrous potassium ferrocyanide is required; water presence causes sodium contamination and useless hydroxide impurity.
Substitution trial: replacing ferrocyanide with ferricyanide (ferricyanide) proved ineffective; the reaction left unreacted sodium and some cyanide, not yielding a pure product.
Original procedure (summary): 20 g oven-baked anhydrous potassium ferrocyanide and 2.5 g sodium metal are heated together (preferably in a metal pot) to form the fused product; after cooling, the material is stored and tested for cyanide content.
Storage observations: six-month storage showed a faint ammonia aroma and a subtle HCN odor, with yellow-brown coloration likely from iron oxide; concerns about loss of active cyanide during storage or storage-related reactions with iron/oxides.
Analytical test for active cyanide: dissolve soluble cyanide salts, remove insolubles, then react with copper sulfate in the presence of a reducing agent (sodium bisulfite) to form copper cyanide; conducted with 200 mL water, CuSO4, and sodium bisulfite at ~50–60 C.
Results: pale blue precipitate obtained after reaction and filtration; drying yielded 8.4 g of copper cyanide from an initial fused melt of 13 g, implying a theoretical yield around 7.3 g and a practical yield just under 50%, suggesting losses during storage and possibly during initial filtration.
Conclusion and outlook: plan to repeat with freshly prepared melt and improved extraction to determine the true yield; more videos to come.