Prussian blue, the inorganic evergreen, is one of the oldest known coordination compounds. Throughout history this compound has been most famous for its use as a blue pigment. Despite being known since the early 1700s, Prussian blue has been reported with a variety of structural characterization problems due to the varying potassium content, defective sites, and particle size. Each of these properties in turn, have a profound effect on the shade of blue that is observed in the resulting products. This presentation will shed light on the structural variances of Prussian blue and support the notion that the compound is not described by a single formulation, but rather a spectrum of possibilities dependent on synthetic preparation. Prussian blue compounds have been prepared with 1-5 point defects and levels of hydration ranging from 6 to 28 moles of water. In one special case, single-crystal X-ray diffraction solved for the so-called “soluble” Prussian blue, KFeIII[FeII(CN)6]. Six sodium containing Prussian blue analogs have also been prepared with varying levels of hydration ranging from 2 to 15 moles of water. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), elemental analysis, and magnetic data are presented for the determination of molecular formulas and to ascertain the dependence of the Curie temperature on structural variance.

Structural study of Prussian blue

249th National Meeting (2015)

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