360 M. Maly on the Synthesis of Formic Acid. 



Gautier has found* that when gaseous hydriodic acid is 

 brought into contact with gaseous hydrocyanic acid, or is passed 

 into an ethereal solution of this acid, the two substances com- 

 bine, forming a white amorphous powder, which crystallizes from 

 alcohol or water in transparent needles. This body has the for- 

 mula G H 2 N I, and the author considers that its formula is 





that it is an iodide of ammonium in which the tri- 



atomic radical €H replaces H 3 . 



Malyf gives the following two methods for the synthetical 

 preparation of formic acid. Sodium-amalgam, besides decom- 

 position of water, acts upon aqueous solution of carbonate of 

 ammonia with formation of ammonium-amalgam ; this decom- 

 poses with liberation of hydrogen, while at the same time the 

 carbonic acid is in the act of being transferred from the ammonia 

 to soda. To a concentrated aqueous solution of carbonate of 

 ammonia a weak sodium-amalgam was gradually added; and when 

 all the ammonia-amalgam that formed at first was again decom- 

 posed, the liquid was poured off from the mercury and distilled 

 with sulphuric acid. The acid distillate thus obtained was found 

 to contain formic acid, the identity of which was established by 

 analysis and by the usual tests. 



When a mixture of powdered metallic zinc and of carbonate 

 of zinc is added to hot potash-lye, the nascent hydrogen adds 

 itself to the carbonate of potash which is in course of formation, 

 and formic acid is also obtained, 



€0 2 + H 2 -f-KHO=eHK0 2 -fH 2 0. 



Formiate of 

 potash. 



The conditions for the synthesis of formic acid are thus (1) hy- 

 drogen in the nascent state, (2) carbonic acid at the moment of 

 transference, and (3) the presence of a powerful base. 



Furfurol exhibits in almost all respects a complete analogy 

 with oil of bitter almonds ; by alcoholic potash it is converted into 

 pyromucic acid, as Ulrich has shown. It is probable that in this 

 reaction the corresponding alcohol is formed ; and, with a view to 

 the direct preparation of this substance, Schmelz and Beilstein J 

 allowed sodium-amalgam to act upon furfurol, which it does 

 with great energy, and without the disengagement of hydrogen. 

 When the action was over, the reddish-brown liquid was poured 



* Comptes Rendus, August 28, 1865. 



t Liebig's Annalen, July 1865. 



X Liebig's Annalen (Supplement), vol. hi. p. 275. 



