Shells, chemical hydrogen cyanide

Vincennite. Poisonous mixt used by the Fr in WWI in chemical shells. It consisted of hydrogen cyanide 50, As trichloride 30, Sn tetrachloride 15, and chloroform 5%. There was difficulty in obtaining toxic concns in field use because of the extreme volatility of the hydrocyanic acid Ref J. Bebie, Explosives, Military Pyrotechnics and Chemical Warfare Agents , Macmillan Co, NY (1943), 160... 

Production of this monomer amounts to 20 miUion tons/year. Traditionally, production was based on cheap and toxic raw materials acetone, a side product of the production of phenol, and hydrogen cyanide, which is highly toxic, a side product of the production of acrylonitrile. The process has now been abandoned because it produces 2.5 kg of ammonium hydrogen sulfate/kg of methyl methacrylate and is characterized by -factor 2.5. The catalytic process, introduced by chemists of the Shell Co., is based on the methoxycarbonylation of methy-lacetylene (propyne). Besides 100 % atom utihzation. this process is characterized by high chemical yield and selectivity, both over 99 % [12]. For the economy of any industrial process, the turnover is a particularly important technological parameter. Approximately 100,000 mols (ca. 4000 kg) of methylacetylene is... 

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