Abstract
Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) polymerizes spontaneously in the neat liquid and in solution. Due to the abundance of hydrogen cyanide in the Universe (Debes et al. 2008), the potential role of hydrogen cyanide polymers in astrochemistry and the origin of life has provoked much speculation. Gas phase HCN is found both in interstellar molecular clouds and in comets in the solar system.
The oligomerization of HCN was first observed by Proust (1806), and analyses of the soluble fraction date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s (Lange 1863; Wippermann 1874; Bedel 1923). Volker was the first to propose a structure for the insoluble polymer in 1960, a so-called “ladder” structure formed by repeats of the HCN dimer in the trans configuration (Volker 1960). The cis...