Electrolytic Oxidation

Abstract

I NOTICE with interest that in your issue of September 22 (p. 511) a brief account is given of a memoir published by Paterno and Pannain in the Gazzetta on the electrolysis of alkaline aqueous solutions of potassium cyanide. The chief result of their work appears to be the production of potassium cyanate. In the summer of 1899 a friend and I were working in the same direction. From the commencement of our experiments, on both aqueous and semi-alcoholic solutions of potassium cyanide, we were struck by the almost entire absence of oxygen in the electrolytic gases. The aqueous solutions became strongly alkaline and ammoniacal. The semi-alcoholic solutions became strongly alkaline, but not ammoniacal. Acetamide was, however, detected in a distillate, the presence of which may explain the absence of free ammonia. The alcoholic solutions also yielded, on evaporation, white crystals, which proved to be potassium carbonate.