nitrosyl isothiocyanate

[woelen]

For people, who are fascinated by strange and obscure compounds, have a look at this reaction with very common chemicals, but with a really strange result.

 

http://woelen.scheikunde.net/science/chem/riddles/thiocyanate+nitrite/index.html

 

I have had some discussion about this reaction recently and it appears that a compound, called nitrosyl isothiocyanate (ON-NCS) is formed in this reaction. This stuff is supposed to form a polymeric species, giving rise to the dark brown color in the liquid.

 

This stuff also is supposed to escape from the liquid as a gas, where it decomposes as follows:

 

ON-NCS ---> ONN + CS

 

The compound with structure ONN is the well-known mild anaesthetic dinitrogen monoxide (laughing gas), the compound CS is a very unstable radical, which reacts with other molecules in the reaction mix, giving rise to the white smoke.

 

All of this is just theory and is not (yet) verified. If some of you have ideas about the actual reaction products and mechanisms or if some of you have ideas on how to analyse the outcome of this reaction further, then I would be very pleased.

 

The really nice thing about this is that there is a very uncommon reaction with very common reagents.