Purity analysis of hydrogen cyanide, cyanogen chloride and phosgene by quantitative (13)C NMR spectroscopy

Main group cyanides: from hydrogen cyanide to cyanido-complexes

Homoleptic cyanide compounds exist of almost all main group elements. While the alkali metals and alkaline earth metals form cyanide salts, the cyanides of the lighter main group elements occur mainly as covalent compounds. This review gives an overview of the status quo of main group element cyanides and cyanido complexes. Information about syntheses are included as well as applications, special substance properties, bond lengths, spectroscopic characteristics and computations. Cyanide chemistry is presented mainly from the field of inorganic chemistry, but aspects of chemical biology and astrophysics are also discussed in relation to cyano compounds.

Comparative Study of Phosgene Gas Sensing Using Carbon and Boron Nitride Nanomaterials-A DFT Approach

Phosgene (COCl₂), a valuable industrial compound, maybe a public safety and health risk due to potential abuse and possible accidental spillage. Conventional techniques suffer from issues related to procedural complexity and sensitivity. Therefore, there is a need for the development of simple and highly sensitive techniques that overcome these challenges. Recent advances in nanomaterials science offer the opportunity for the development of such techniques by exploiting the unique properties of these nanostructures. In this study, we investigated the potential of six types of nanomaterials: three carbon-based ([5,0] CNT, C60, C70) and three boron nitride-based (BNNT, BN60, BN70) for the detection of COCl₂. The local density approximation (LDA) approach of the density functional theory (DFT) was used to estimate the adsorption characteristics and conductivities of these materials. The results show that the COCl₂ molecule adsorbed spontaneously on the Fullerene or nanocages and endothermically on the pristine zigzag nanotubes. Using the magnitude of the bandgap modulation, the order of suitability of the different nanomaterials was established as follows: PBN60 (0.19%) < PC70 (1.39%) < PC60 (1.77%) < PBNNT (27.64%) < PCNT (65.29%) < PBN70 (134.12%). Since the desired criterion for the design of an electronic device is increased conductivity after adsorption due to the resulting low power consumption, PC60 was found to be most suitable because of its power consumption as it had the largest decrease of 1.77% of the bandgap.

Salts of HCN-Cyanide Aggregates: [CN(HCN)2 ]- and [CN(HCN)3 ]. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2020;59:10508-10513. [PMID: 32027458 PMCID: PMC7317722 DOI: 10.1002/anie.201915206]

Although pure hydrogen cyanide can spontaneously polymerize or even explode, when initiated by small amounts of bases (e.g. CN^- ), the reaction of liquid HCN with [WCC]CN (WCC=weakly coordinating cation=Ph₄ P, Ph₃ PNPPh₃ =PNP) was investigated. Depending on the cation, it was possible to extract salts containing the formal dihydrogen tricyanide [CN(HCN)₂ ]^- and trihydrogen tetracyanide ions [CN(HCN)₃ ]^- from liquid HCN when a fast crystallization was carried out at low temperatures. X-ray structure elucidation revealed hydrogen-bridged linear [CN(HCN)₂ ]^- and Y-shaped [CN(HCN)₃ ]^- molecular ions in the crystal. Both anions can be considered members of highly labile cyanide-HCN solvates of the type [CN(HCN)_n ]^- (n=1, 2, 3 …) as well as formal polypseudohalide ions.

Fluorescent Chemosensor for Dual-Channel Discrimination between Phosgene and Triphosgene

As highly toxic and accessible chemical reagents, phosgene and triphosgene have become a serious threat to public safety. So, it is highly desirable to develop facile methods to detect and recognize them. In this article, a novel fluorescent chemosensor, Phos-4, has been constructed with 1,8-naphthalimide as the fluorophore and 2-(2-aminophenyl)imidazol as the recognition sites for discrimination between phosgene and triphosgene in a dual-channel mode for the first time. Owing to the difference in electrophilicity between chlorocarbonyl and trichloromethoxycarbonyl, the sensing reaction of Phos-4 with phosgene undergoes two carbamylations to afford a cyclic product with green fluorescence, and only one carbamylation occurs for triphosgene to form a noncyclic product with blue fluorescence. The sensor Phos-4 exhibits high sensitivity (the limit of detection, 3.2 nM, for phosgene, and 1.9 nM, for triphosgene) and high selectivity in solutions. Furthermore, facile test papers containing Phos-4-embedded nanofibrous membrane have been fabricated by the electrospinning technology. The test papers can provide visual and selective detection of phosgene with a lower limit of detection (42 ppb) and a faster response (≤10 s) in the gas phase over those in solutions. The test paper with Phos-4 is promising to be a practical detection tool of gaseous phosgene.

A BODIPY-Based Fluorescent Probe for Detection of Subnanomolar Phosgene with Rapid Response and High Selectivity

A new type of phosgene probe with a limit of detection down to 0.12 nM, response time of less than 1.5 s, and high selectivity over other similarly reactive toxic chemicals was developed using ethylenediamine as the recognition moiety and 8-substituted BODIPY unit as the fluorescence signaling component. The probe undergoes sequential phosgene-mediated nucleophilic substitution reaction and intramolecular cyclization reaction with high rate, yielding a product with the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) process from amine to the BODIPY core significantly inhibited. Owing to the emission feature of 8-substituted BODIPY that is highly sensitive to the substituent's electronic nature, such inhibition on the ICT process strikingly generates strong fluorescence contrast by a factor of more than 23 300, and therefore creates the superhigh sensitivity of the probe for phosgene. Owing to the high reactivity of ethylenediamine of the probe in nucleophilic substitution reactions, the probe displays a very fast response rate to phosgene.