The key difference between calcium cyanide and calcium cyanamide is that calcium cyanide is produced by the reaction of calcium cyanamide with carbon in a fused salt melt, whereas calcium cyanamide is produced through the nitrogenation of calcium carbide.
Calcium cyanide and calcium cyanamide are important inorganic compounds that are calcium salts of cyanide-containing substances.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Calcium Cyanide
3. What is Calcium Cyanamide
4. Calcium Cyanide vs Calcium Cyanamide in Tabular Form
5. Summary – Calcium Cyanide vs Calcium Cyanamide
What is Calcium Cyanide?
Calcium cyanide is an inorganic compound having the chemical formula Ca(CN)2. It is the calcium salt of hydrogen cyanide acid and is also known as black cyanide. When it is in the pure form, calcium cyanide appears as a white solid, while commercial samples are black-gray colored. This substance can hydrolyze readily upon exposure to moist air. This hydrolysis releases hydrogen cyanide. Similar to all other cyanide compounds, calcium cyanide is also highly toxic.
Figure 01: The Chemical Structure of Calcium Cyanide Compound
The molar mass of this compound is 92.1 g/mol. The odor of calcium cyanide is similar to that of hydrogen cyanide. At high temperatures, the compounds tend to undergo decomposition. It is a water-soluble compound and also soluble in alcohols and weak acids. The crystal structure of calcium cyanide is rhombohedric. It is highly toxic but non-flammable.
We can prepare calcium cyanide by treating powdered calcium oxide with hydrocyanic acid (boiling) upon the presence of an accelerator, e.g. ammonia or water, which can minimize the loss of the hydrocyanic acid through polymerization.
There are important uses of calcium cyanide, which include the mining industry, where it serves as an inexpensive source of cyanide for many leaching or vat operations in order to obtain precious metals, e.g. gold, silver, etc. This is done by the formation of coordination complexes with these metals, which causes the separation of the metals from their ore.
What is Calcium Cyanamide?
Calcium cyanamide is an inorganic compound having the chemical formula CaCN2. We can name it the calcium salt of cyanamide anion. It is useful as a fertilizer that is commercially known as nitrolime. This substance appears as a white solid that often appears in gray or black color due to impurities. It is an odorless substance.
Figure 02: The Chemical Structure of Calcium Cyanamide
We can prepare calcium cyanamide from calcium carbide. In this production process, carbide powder is heat-treated to about 1000 Celsius degrees using an electric furnace. This process makes nitrogen in the sample pass several hours. Thereafter, we can cool the product into ambient temperature where unreacted carbide can be leached out carefully with water. The process crystallizes the product in a hexagonal crystal system.
Figure 03: Using Calcium Cyanamide as a Fertilizer in Soil
There are different uses of calcium cyanamide; using it as an agricultural fertilizer that can liberate ammonia, useful for the production of sodium cyanide through fusing it with sodium carbonate, useful in the cyanide process for gold mining, etc.
What is the Difference Between Calcium Cyanide and Calcium Cyanamide?
Calcium cyanide and calcium cyanamide are related inorganic compounds. The key difference between calcium cyanide and calcium cyanamide is that calcium cyanide is produced by the reaction of calcium cyanamide with carbon in a fused salt melt, whereas calcium cyanamide is produced through the nitrogenation of calcium carbide.
The below infographic presents the differences between calcium cyanide and calcium cyanamide in tabular form for side by side comparison.
Summary – Calcium Cyanide vs Calcium Cyanamide
Calcium cyanide is an inorganic compound having the chemical formula Ca(CN)2. Calcium cyanamide is an inorganic compound having the chemical formula CaCN2. The key difference between calcium cyanide and calcium cyanamide is that calcium cyanide is produced by the reaction of calcium cyanamide with carbon in a fused salt melt, whereas calcium cyanamide is produced through the nitrogenation of calcium carbide.
Reference:
1. “Calcium Cyanamide.” An Overview | ScienceDirect Topics.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Calcium cyanide structure” By Ed (Edgar181) – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Calcium cyanamide” By Edgar181 – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia
3. “Transformation of calcium cyanamide” By MagentaGreen – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia