KCN
Potassium cyanide · Cyanide of potassium
Potassium cyanide is a highly reactive inorganic salt that functions as a potent chemical reagent in industrial and laboratory settings.
About Potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide is a crystalline inorganic compound characterized by its insulating electronic nature. It is widely recognized for its high reactivity and role in various specialized chemical synthesis pathways. Due to its position above the thermodynamic hull, the compound is considered inherently unstable under standard conditions. Its structural versatility is evidenced by the numerous distinct crystalline arrangements reported across scientific databases.
Key Properties
Cross-validated computational properties for Potassium cyanide, aggregated across 3 databases.
Band GapEnergy needed to move an electron from the valence band to the conduction band. Lower or zero values tend to behave more metallic; larger gaps are more insulating or semiconducting.
Energy Above HullThermodynamic distance from the most stable set of competing phases. 0 eV/atom is on the convex hull; small positive values may still be experimentally accessible.
StabilityA plain-language summary of the best reported energy-above-hull result. It reflects whether the lowest-energy structure is on, near, or far from the stability hull.
StructuresCount of reported calculated crystal structures for this formula, including alternate polymorphs, source databases, and observed space groups.
Applications
Where Potassium cyanide is used.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about Potassium cyanide, answered from cross-validated data.
What is KCN?
Potassium cyanide is a highly reactive inorganic salt that functions as a potent chemical reagent in industrial and laboratory settings.
What is KCN used for?
What is the band gap of KCN?
Is KCN a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
Is KCN thermodynamically stable?
How many polymorphs of KCN are known?
What elements does KCN contain?
Where does the data for KCN come from?
How It Compares
As a standalone compound in this context, potassium cyanide serves as a primary example of a cyanide-based salt that exhibits significant structural polymorphism despite its thermodynamic instability.
Data sources & attribution
- latticegraph — Lattice Graph Materials Intelligence Platform
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