Silver cyanate is the
cyanate salt
In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...
of
silver
Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
. It can be made by the reaction of
potassium cyanate
Potassium cyanate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula, formula KOCN (sometimes denoted KCNO). It is a colourless solid. It is used to prepare many other compounds including useful herbicide. Worldwide production of the potassium an ...
with
silver nitrate
Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called ''lunar causti ...
in aqueous solution, from which it precipitates as a solid.
:
Alternatively, the reaction
:
analogous to the reaction used for the industrial production of
sodium cyanate, may be used.
Silver cyanate is a beige to gray powder. It crystallises in the
monoclinic crystal system
In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic sy ...
in
space group
In mathematics, physics and chemistry, a space group is the symmetry group of a repeating pattern in space, usually in three dimensions. The elements of a space group (its symmetry operations) are the rigid transformations of the pattern that ...
''P''2
1/''m'' with parameters ''a'' = 547.3
pm, ''b'' = 637.2 pm, ''c'' = 341.6 pm, and ''β'' = 91°. Each unit cell contains two cyanate ions and two silver ions. The silver ions are each equidistant from two nitrogen atoms forming a straight group. The nitrogen atoms are each coordinated to two silver atoms, so that there are zigzag chains of alternating silver and nitrogen atoms going in the direction of the monoclinic "''b''" axis, with the cyanate ions perpendicular to that axis.
D. Britton, J. D. Dunitz: ''The crystal structure of silver cyanate''
Acta Crystallogr. (1965). 18, 424–428,
Silver cyanate reacts with nitric acid
Nitric acid is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but samples tend to acquire a yellow cast over time due to decomposition into nitrogen oxide, oxides of nitrogen. Most com ...
to form silver nitrate, carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...
, and ammonium nitrate
Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, but does not form hydrates. It is predominantly us ...
.[J. Milbauer: ''Bestimmung und Trennung der Cyanate, Cyanide, Rhodanide und Sulfide'' in Fresenius' Journal of Analytical Chemistry 42 (1903) 77–95, .]
:
See also
* Silver fulminate
Silver fulminate (AgCNO) is the highly explosive silver salt of fulminic acid.
Silver fulminate is a primary explosive, but has limited use as such due to its extreme sensitivity to impact, heat, pressure, and electricity. The compound becomes p ...
References
{{Cyanates
Silver compounds
Cyanates