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The Peaceful Pill Handbook The Manufacture of Sodium Cyanide
They can however be manufactured (with care) from readily available ingredients, using unsophisticated facilities and equipment. Care must be employed in the manufacture, and the substance produced should be assayed to ensure the desired result.
Sodium cyanide can be manufactured in a number of ways. Two relatively simple methods are described in the scientific literature. The first involves the use of the readily available dye, Prussian Blue (Iron III Ferro cyanide). A second uses the common swimming pool chlorine stabiliser, cyanuric acid.
Fig7.4: Forge reduces sodium cyanate with carbon In the first process the
Prussian Blue is first converted to sodium ferrocyanide. This is done by allowing it to react with caustic soda in water. Iron oxide is precipitated and sodium ferro cyanide obtained. This sodium ferrocyanide (Yellow Prussate of Soda) is then converted to sodium cyanide by allowing it to react with concentrated sulphuric acid.
The very toxic HCN produced is passed into caustic soda to form the desired salt. There is considerable information available on this process but it was abandoned after initial experiments, considering it too dangerous for the inexperienced home chemist - some of whom may be readers of this book.