sodium cyanide

noun

, Chemistry.

a white, crystalline, deliquescent, water-soluble, poisonous powder, NaCN, prepared by heating sodium amide with charcoal: used chiefly in casehardening alloys, in the leaching and flotation of ore, and in electroplating.

sodium cyanide

a white odourless crystalline soluble poisonous compound with an odour of hydrogen cyanide when damp. It is used for extracting gold and silver from their ores and for case-hardening steel. Formula: NaCN

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First recorded in 1880–85

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When at last apprehended, Siddiqui was carrying a jar containing two pounds of a deadly poison, sodium cyanide.

This chloride is then mixed with sodium cyanide in alcoholic solution and distilled, benzyl cyanide being the result.

Sodium cyanide is a salt of hydrocyanic acid, which for, some curious reason is called "Prussic acid."

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