Cyanide: Occurrence, Applications and Toxicity

While cyanide finds application in myriad industries, its presence in the environment as a pollutant warrants special attention, as exposure to cyanide is harmful or even lethal to humans and animals. This volume includes five chapters that examine cyanide’s industrial applications and methods for reducing its environmental impact. Chapter One introduces electrochemical sensors based on silver and silver sulfide nanoparticles supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes and hierarchical porous carbon for the detection of low concentrations of free cyanide in water. Chapter Two reviews theoretically predicted cyanide compounds having strong bonding units which can be synthesized under roughly ambient conditions. Chapter Three proposes a parsimonious global cyanide cycle to minimize its presence in the environment. Chapter Four describes commercially available methods for cyanide removal including reverse osmosis, chemical oxidation and biological treatment, focusing on Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor technology. Lastly, Chapter Five examines the efficacy of Fusarium oxysporum for microbial degradation of cyanide to treat wastewater by measuring the heat capacity of its lyophilized biomass using a modulated differential scanning calorimeter.