Magnesium cyanide is a chemical compound with the formula Mg(CN)2.
Unlike calcium isocyanide, the cyanide ligands prefer to coordinate at carbon, with a 0.3‑kcal/mol isomerization barrier.
To avoid this problem, instead of using water as the reaction medium, pure ammonia was used at -30 °C.
[3] Other methods are possible, such as the decomposition of magnesium ferricyanide in an electric carbon tube, which produces iron carbide as a byproduct.
When this compound is heated it produces hydrogen cyanide gas and magnesium hydroxide in the presence of water, which meant it could not be used as a pathway for the production of magnesium cyanide.