Properties of Cyanides

The lower alkyl cyanides (up to about C14) are colourless liquids with a strong, characteristic sweet smell; the higher members are crystalline solids. They are moderately soluble in water but freely soluble in organic solvents, and they are poisonous. Cyanides have HIGHER boiling points than the structurally analogous acetylenes (alkynes of comparable carbon count), because the C#N triple bond is far more polar (a strong dipole moment) than the essentially nonpolar C#C t …