In a
600-ml. screw-capped bottle are placed
15.4 g. (0.32 mole) of sodium cyanide,
20.5 g. (0.16 mole) of hydrazine sulfate (Note
1), and 400 ml. of ice water. The bottle is capped to prevent loss of
hydrogen cyanide (Note
2) and held in an
ice bath for 15 minutes. To the cooled mixture is added
29.4 g. (0.3 mole) of cyclohexanone. The bottle is recapped and cooled for an additional 15 minutes. The bottle is then shaken intermittently over a period of 6 hours and allowed to stand an additional 14 hours. The bottle is cooled again before opening. The suspension is filtered by means of suction, and the cake is washed thoroughly with 250 ml. of ice water. After the crude product has been pressed dry on the filter (Note
3), it is transferred to a
500-ml. Erlenmeyer flask and
150 ml. of boiling 95% ethanol is added. The suspension is brought into solution as rapidly as possible by warming on a hot plate (Note
4) and is filtered quickly through a prewarmed
7.5-cm. Büchner funnel. An additional
10 ml. of hot 95% ethanol is used to dissolve any organic residue on the filter, and the combined filtrates are warmed to redissolve any precipitate. The solution is allowed to stand undisturbed for 6 hours in an
icebox. The product is collected on a Büchner funnel, washed with
15 ml. of cold 95% ethanol, and then dried over solid
calcium chloride in a
vacuum desiccator. The yield of product is
24.5–26 g. (
66–70%); m.p.
147–149° (Note
5).