Neocon and Tigerpaw.....
"I understand from media reports it was sort of a white powder, like a container with white powder,"
If it is a white powder is is most likely potassium cyanide, i.e. KCN. Potassium ferrocyanide, ie K4Fe(CN)6, is a yellow crystalline substance while potassium ferricyanide, K3Fe(CN)6 is a red cyrstalline material.
" and people who know about this chemical also say that it is a chemical that is extremely dangerous, mainly because it is very difficult to detect, and very difficult to smell."
It is relatively easy to detect, and in significant quantities has the odor of burning almonds...in minute quantities it may difficult to smell. KCN was used in the gas chamber. A pellet of the material was dropped into a cup of sulfuric acid(underneath the victim's chair) which produced hydrogen cyanide, HCN, a deadly gas.
"If you put this powder, this composite, in water, you won't be able to see it, you won't be able to smell it, you won't be able to taste it, if you drink the water."
It is very soluble in water but any significant amount would have a taste and is very caustic so it will burn the mouth and throat. It also releases some hydrogen cyanide from the water solution. You may recall that Hitler and friends used of it on themselves. I had an acquaintance in high school who drank a solution...it was reported that he had scratched his throat bloody because of the burning. He got the cyanide from the high school chem lab.
Anecdotally, I once worked in a plating lab where cyanide use is common. An inexperienced technician was asked to make a fresh batch of glass cleaning solution which is a mix of potassium dichromate and sulfuric acid. An alert chemist saw him weighing about a 1000 grams (about 2 lbs.) of a white powder on a scale and when he inquired what was being prepared he was told it was cleaning solution. The chemist knew that potassium dichromate is a bright orange color and determined that the young man was weighing KCN. The chemicals were placed alphabetically on the shelves. Had he succeeded in mixing it with the sulfuric acid he might have wiped out the whole building...... |
