Letter pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Nitrile Toxicity Hilton Weiss* Department of Chemistry, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504, United States ABSTRACT: The hazards associated with propionitrile are noted. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Second-Year Undergraduate, Upper-Division Undergraduate, Safety/Hazards recent article “Learning about Regiochemistry from a Hydrogen-Atom Abstraction Reaction in Water” by Christopher Sears-Dundes, et al.1 describes an interesting experiment with propionitrile. It states “The only hazard with this reaction is students must be careful when using the corrosive chemicals sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide.” It should be noted that all aliphatic nitriles are quite poisonous as they undergo a free radical oxidation in the liver forming the cyanohydrin followed by the loss of hydrogen cyanide.2,3
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected].
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REFERENCES
(1) Sears-Dundes, C.; Huon, Y.; Hotz, R. P.; Pinhas, A. R. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88 (10), 1437−1438. (2) Bhattacharya, R.; Satpute, R. M.; Hariharakrishnan, J.; Tripathi, H.; Saxena., P. B. Food Chem. Toxicol. 2009, 47, 2314−2320. (3) Johannsen, F. R.; Levinskas., G. J. Fundam. Appl. Toxicol. 1986, 7, 690−697.
Published: April 5, 2012 © 2012 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed2006136 | J. Chem. Educ. 2012, 89, 695−695
