Sodium cyanide is an extremely toxic compound which releases hydrogen cyanide gas upon contact with a strong acid. Hydrogen cyanide gas is both toxic
and an explosion hazard. Anything that is used to synthesize the sodium cyanide should be left in a solution of sodium hypochlorite (bleach) for at
least a few hours to convert the cyanide to the much safer cyanate ion.
Now that the precautions are over with, I'll be describing the synthesis of sodium cyanide from urine via the extraction of urea from urine, reacting
the urea to form cyanate, and reducing that cyanate to form cyanide.
First of all, you will need to collect about a week's worth of urine (note that the average person excretes about 30 grams of urea through urine a
day.) From there, boil down your urine until it becomes an anhydrous powder. Take the powder and dissolve it in methanol. Filter the solution and
evaporate the methanol for your urea.
Then, mix your urea with sodium carbonate in a 1:1 molar ratio and within a container that can withstand temperatures of 800c+ (a steel can will
suffice), place your mix within it. Heat the mixture for about 15-30 minutes. What's happening here is the urea is reacting with the sodium carbonate
to form sodium cyanate as described in this equation: CO(NH2)2 + Na2CO3 ---> 2 NaOCN + 2 H2O.
Take your cyanate slag and powderize it, mix the powder with carbon in a 2:1 molar ratio and place back into the previously used reaction vessel. Heat
the mix up to 800c+ for about 15-30 minutes. The carbon is reducing the oxygen in the cyanate to form carbon dioxide and sodium cyanide: 2 NaOCN + C =
CO2 + 2 NaCN.
Once your slag has cooled down, dissolve in water and filter off any insoluble material. Dry it off and you should have sodium cyanide. If you desire
more a more pure product, recrystallize your cyanide powder.
Finally, clean everything the cyanide has touched with a bath of sodium hypochlorite. This will convert the toxic cyanide to relatively non-toxic
cyanate.
Final note, I'm not responsible for what you do with your cyanide. Velzee - 28-2-2016 at 12:42
Never watched chemplayers video on that so im sorry if the procedure is similar. I wanted to contribute something to the community for a startPseudonym_ - 28-2-2016 at 13:26
boil down your urine until it becomes an anhydrous powder.
Have you ever *done* this?
Im new here so I didnt really get to see the thread. Its also all theory since they dont let you do this stuff in uni dormsMarvin - 28-2-2016 at 13:50
I appreciate the honesty in that. Good information is something we can check from books, if it's theory you've worked out do tell us first. Good
descriptions are things someone has done first hand and notes everything tried down.
While there is a good chance your method would produce some cyanide, there are a number of mistakes, maybe mistakes and a big lack of experience in
your method. I suggest you read right through the cyanide thread. Welcome to the forum.Texium - 28-2-2016 at 16:51
This is going into Beginnings due to being speculative and unreferenced.j_sum1 - 28-2-2016 at 16:58
I have no desire or need to produce NaCN. I am quite happy to watch someone else's videos on his one.cyanureeves - 28-2-2016 at 17:56
nurd rage's video did not warn about cyanogen chloride that can be produced by mixing bleach and cyanide.making gold or silver cyanide is kind of easy
but if a person tries to make copper cyanide then it can be dangerous.copper cyanide is commonly made using copper sulfate and cyanide but it releases
a toxic gas too.cody's lab video shows by far the simplest way to make cyanide.Pseudonym_ it is more important to learn about disposal,handling,and
mixing with other chemicals.even if you survive a minor exposure it can cause pain in your liver as your body cleans out that crap.live long and
prosper!Great - 28-2-2016 at 20:15
You want to use the Hydroxide, because Carbonate and Cyanide are insoluble in Ethanol and it gets really irritating to separate them.chemplayer.. - 29-2-2016 at 03:45
Very topical - we've just been doing some chemistry that was inspired after a hard night on BBQ chicken and beer
From urea to cyanate is easy. Lots of references and procedures out there to follow.
From cyanate to cyanide is a little harder. The heat has to be very strong and at the temperatures needed keeping the air out (but allowing gas to
escape) so that the product doesn't re-oxidise to cyanate again is practically very hard. We tried it and could certainly detect cyanide (via prussian
blue test) in the end reaction mixture but it's only a small amount and didn't seem to be a viable way of producing any reagent quality cyanide.
Fyi we've found that in lots of reactions the purity of the cyanide makes a BIG difference. Try making mandelic acid for instance with 50% cyanide
(with cyanate etc. as impurities) and you won't get 50% mandelic, you'll get more like 10%.testimento - 1-3-2016 at 04:02
Basically the reaction consists of mixing one mol of urea with one mol of sodium carbonate and excess molar of pure carbon, mixing well and heating to
significant temperature so all evolving gases can freely escape but no air can freely enter. In this process the urea is decomposed and reacted with
the sodium carbonate to form sodium cyanate, and further driven a carbothermic reduction will give sodium cyanide. Purification can be done by
dissolving the formed and cooled cake into water, filtering carbon residues off and mixing in significant portion of ethanol, which causes the cyanide
to precipitate in the form of a pure white solid mass. Probable impurities are sodium hydroxide or carbonate and sodium cyanate.
