The colour of cyanide poisoning is purple, according to researchers in Switzerland who have developed a method that enables them to quickly detect blood cyanide levels through a simple colour change.
The two-step method to detect cyanide. (A) Adding a chemosensor to a blood sample, followed by extracting the purple chemosensor–cyano complex from the sample. (B) Washing the column with water
Cyanide poisoning as a result of smoke inhalation can have serious or fatal consequences unless an antidote is rapidly administered. Current methods for determining cyanide poisoning, including microdiffusion, microdistillation and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry detection, can take up to an hour to give results and are not suitable for point-of-care settings.
Read the full article in Chemistry World online.
Rapid visual detection of blood cyanide
Christine Männel-Croisé and Felix Zelder
Anal. Methods, 2012, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C2AY25595B
