US1417702A - Process of producing cyanides - Google Patents

Description

I To all may] concern:

- STATES PATENT OFFICE.

room) VON BIcHowsKY AN JOHN HARTHAN, or GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA.

, rnocrss or raonvcnve GYANIDES.

No Drawingu Be it known that we, Fooim VON BIcHoW- sKY and-JOHN HARTHAN, citizens of'the' United States, and residents of Glendale, county of Los Angeles, State of California,

have-invented anew and useful Process of Producing Cyanides, of whichthe following is a specification.

- process of production.

ered, that the .reactiommay be The presentinvention relates in general.

to the production of cyanides' and has reference more particularly to an improved We have discovered that compounds containing only titanium and nitrogen as Well/as the so called titanium cyanonitrides, can be'readily converted into inorganic alkali metal salt together. with .a reducing agent. We have further discovwithout the use :of free carbon.

By a suitable alkali metal'salt, we

preferably include such compoundsnas formates,

acetates, 'oxalates or oxides, hydroxides, carbonatesor other salts of sodium, or1potassium, or if desired mixtures of the'above.

For a reducing agent we. preferably employ iron filings, which have'become saturated with ironcarbide. Thegformation of such titanium oxideand iron, together with sodium carbonate, with methane (natural gas) and nitrogen.

The mass so obtained after mechanically removing the free carbonlis most suitable for our new process as the non present, with the titanium nitrides, issaturated with dissolved carbon and iron-carbide is-therefore present in an impure form.

The process of the l-present invention is particularly valuable, since the titanium is easily recovered from the reaction mass and used over again. v While the iron, present as such in the mass, 'is freed from carbon,-and .its melting point raised, which is of value when reusing the said iron in a-newl pretitanium nitrides," under which term we preferably include 15 carried out 7 I takes containing mass and; dry sodium Specification of illetters Patent. Patented lIay 30 1922; Application filed October 25, 1920. Serial a... 419,458. y

' pared and unnitrifie d catalytic mass. Also 'by 'avoidingthe use-of free carbon a more uniform reaction results and the fi-nal roduct is: easier to recover in a pureunco ored condition. ;In addition the amount of alkaline metal compound can be reduced to more nearly the theoretical amount.

"For the purpose ofthis invention, the titanlum n trides and titanium cyano-nitrides are equlvalentsi J The following will serve to illustrate further the nature of our invention, which, h0W- ever, is not confined necessarily to these ex-- amples, and the-method of carrying it into practical effect. A

As an example:

Meltv together for about thirty minutes at a brigh t red heat two parts of the finely ground titanlum nitride. containing mass and about three parts of anhydrous sodium car bonatef *The carbon monoxide evolved dur- 1n heating=may be collected and burned. W i en the meltiscold, the sodium cyanide contained therein can be recovered -in any convenient manner. The reaction which place can be represented by the equa-; tion:

{As another example: filings we have describedin two previous,

.a jMelt toge her for. thirty minutes at a tem- "jgiralture oi about. 950 C., a mixture of equal parts 'ofthe finely ground titanium nitride formate. The reaction which takes sented by the equation The cyanide can be eitherrecove'red'as such 1 or converted into ammonia by treating the reaction mass with steam according to the well known procedure.

Weclaimr J 1. Theproduction of. cyanides of the alkali metals which consists in heating titanium nitrides with a carbide of iron in the absence of .free carbon and in the presence of an alkali metal; salt.

place can be repre- 1 5D r l Which consists in heating a titanium nitride With a carbide of iron in the presence of a sodium salt.

3. The production of sodium cyanide which consistsin heating a titanium nitride with a carbide of iron in the presence of at sodium formats;

- eis/flee 4. The hereindescribed process of pi'odncing cyanide which consists, heating. a tita-' nium compound with ah alkelimetal salt to-' gether With a reducing agent in the absence of free carbon. 1

q FQURD- VON BICHOWSKY.

. JQHN HARTHAN.