Now, since I did a mock newspaper it was somewhat difficult to add information about cyanide's molar mass, bonding ability, etc. and my project ended up looking more like a presentation about the dangers of cyanide because there was hardly anything chemistry related. I am going to add that stuff now.
Below is the equation I used to find Cyanide's molar mass:
C (12.01) + N (14.00) = CN (26.00)
So I suppose that equation shows I know how to find how much Cyanide there is in one mole of Cyanide....
There are actually several kinds of cyanide but that it caused then the molecule above (pure cyanide) bonds with a hydrogen or a chlorine atom, for example. I was able to do the equation above by looking at the mass numbers (located on a periodic table at the bottom of the element's square) of the two elements that make cyanide and adding them together. If I were going to find the molar mass of another type of cyanide, it would be a slightly more challenging process, as I would have to find the charge of all the elements involved (for example Cyanogen Chloride (Cyanide- and Chlorine-))
CN (26.00) + Cl (35.45) = CNCl (61.45)
It may not look like much, looking at the equations I have written above, to the non-chemistry educated eye, but those equations can actually teach you a lot of things. I have listed them with explanations below:
- The Law of Conservation of Mass- The Law states that in a chemical reaction no matter is created or lost. As you can see, the same elements are still there, they are literally just added to another element(s) to make a different molecule.
- Matter (more specifically, compounds)- A compound is a type of matter that consists of two or more elements bonded together. Most things on this earth are made of compounds (Ex: table salt {NaCl}) Not to be confused with a mixture, which is just two or more elements together is a given space and no chemical reaction occurs and they do not bond (Salt and Water {NaCl and H20}).
- Chemical Formulas- Chemical formulas are the shorthand way to write the name of elements, compounds and mixtures. Scientists developed this when they got tired of writing things like Dinitrogen Tetroxide all the time. With chemical formulas, compounds with names like that can be simplified to N2O4, which also make it easier to know how many atoms of each element will be needed to make the compound.
- Chemical Bonding- In order to form a compound or carry out a chemical reaction two or more elements must bond. Bonding is usually why chemical reactions are so fun, because sometimes weird and exciting things happen like explosions
- Chemical Reactions- By now you may have figured out what a chemical reaction is, but I'm going to explain it anyway. A chemical reaction is when two or more molecules rearrange to form a new molecule. Like I said earlier, sometimes exciting things happen when a chemical reaction occurs, but there are also some pretty tame reactions too. Here is the check list to tell if a chemical reaction occurred:
- Color Change
- Formation of water
- Formation of a Precipitate- Formation of a solid
- Formation of gas- Bubbles
- Energy released or absorbed as light or heat
So, I know we are supposed to demonstrate everything we know about chemistry through the project and my project is about Cyanide but I looked all over the internet to find a stoichiometry problem involving Cyanide but I couldn't find one so I guess I'm going to prove my skills with a couple non-Cyanide related problems. :)
1) How many grams of oxygen can be prepared by the decomposition of 25 grams of potassium chlorate?
2CaO = 2Ca + O2
25g CaO x 1 mole CaO x 1 mole O2 x 32g O2 = 7.36g O2
56.08g CaO 2 mole CaO 1 mole O2
***You may have noticed how all of the amounts are labeled, that is because it wildly important to the measurements you are using when you write an equation.***
2) The following is a Composition stoichiometry problem: NaOH
Part
Na: 1 mole Na x 22.99g Na = 22.99g Na x 100 = 40%
1 mole Na 56.99g NaOHPart
O2: 1 mole O2 x 32.00g O2 = 32.00g O2 x 100 = 56% 40% + 56% + 3.5% = 99.5%
1 mole O2 56.99g NaOH (Almost 100%)
Part
H2: 1 mole H2 x 2.00g H2 = 2.00g H2 x 100 = 3.5%
1 mole O2 56.99g NaOH
22.99g Na + 32.00g O2 + 2.00g H2 = 56.99g NaOH
Now, Cyanide is extremely poisonous (it can kill you in less then 30 minutes after it enters the body) so I thought it might be nice to tell you some toxicity facts about it. (MSDS information about Potassium Cyanide)
- Appearance- White amorphous crystals
- Odor- Faint almond odor, toxic fumes
- Hazards- Highly toxic, may be fatal, avoid ALL body contact as that may cause poisoning, not super flammable
- Things to avoid- Acids; they release poisonous hydrogen cyanide gas, your body; it's HIGHLY toxic
- Solubility- Soluble in water, alcohol and glycerol
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Now for the reflection part of the blog, yay! As far as the actual project part goes, I did a mock newspaper Prezi warning people about the dangers of Cyanide, where its found, and what people should avoid in order to survive. Since it was a newspaper intended for the "general public" I couldn't really go on and talk about The Law of Conservation of Mass and how it relates to Cyanide, so I was really only able to add a little bit of my knowledge of chemistry to my actual project. The rest of my knowledge is listed somewhere above.
One of the areas of my knowledge that contributed to my project is experimental design. When I was reading the chapter in The Poisoner's Handbook all about cyanides I came across a lab that the profiled forensic pathologist Dr. Gettler came up with to test if cyanide was in the body tissue of the organ involved in the experiment. I merely copied down the steps Dr. Gettler followed (don't worry, I gave credit), but then I made a list of the materials based off of what the lab either said or what I thought seemed like a practical item to use.
Another area in my project where my chemistry knowledge paid off is my ability to find an appropriate picture showing a proper chemical bond. I know it doesn't sound like much but when you Google "Cyanide chemical bond" you get a bunch of complicated and random pictures and all I wanted was a picture of a simple Cyanide bond. I managed to find picture of a polar covalent bond that was easy to look at by the non-chemistry educated mind.
But honestly, that point listed above is a stretch (to claim as a demonstration of my chemistry knowledge). I know my project isn't super rich in chemistry, I just wanted to go off the stories constantly told throughout the chapter about the unsuspecting bystander dying a terrible death of Cyanide poisoning and talk about why its a bad chemical. If I could do this project over again I would probably change the premise of my project and instead of trying to literally write a newspaper article about Cyanide's dangers I would make it more educational like the stuff I talked about in my reflection before the funny looking line. I thought the newspaper seemed like a good idea in the beginning but its actually incredibly difficult to include a stoichiometry problem into a news report.
If I could extend the project I would actually turn my "newspaper" into more of a medical journal and not only talk about the dangers of Cyanide but also include the things I listed earlier in my reflection, like the MSDS information and the equations. I would try to make an entire write-up of not only everything we learned this year but everything there is in regards to Cyanide. I would probably title the whole thing 'Cyanide' because it would literally be a journal with as many things about Cyanide as I could find. My extended project would have other experiments involving Cyanide, and extended MSDS section, ways to test for it in bodies and in nature, uses of it through out the decades, journals by other people about their studies of it etc. It would be like a Cyanide encyclopedia.
