Sodium cyanate


Sodium cyanate is a white crystalline solid that adopts a body centered rhombohedral crystal lattice structure at room temperature.

Preparation

Sodium cyanate is prepared industrially by the reaction of urea with sodium carbonate at elevated temperature.
It can also be prepared in the laboratory by oxidation of a cyanide in aqueous solution by a mild oxidizing agent such as lead oxide.

Chemical Uses

Sodium cyanate is an ideal nucleophile, and these nucleophilic properties make it a major contributor to the stereospecificity in certain reactions such as in the production of chiral oxazolidone.

Medical Applications

Sodium cyanate is a useful reagent in producing asymmetrical urea derivatives that have a range of biological activity mostly in aryl isocyanate intermediates. Such intermediates as well as sodium cyanate have been used in medicine as a means of counterbalancing carcinogenic effects on the body, possibly helping people with sickle cell anemia, and blocking certain receptors for melanin which has been shown to help with obesity. In most cases the intermediates produced with sodium cyanide are used for medicinal study; however, in the cases of sickle cell anemia and anti-carcinogenic research sodium cyanate itself was the compound of interest.