calcium cyanamide

noun

1. a gray-black, often lumpy powder, CaCN 2 , unstable in water, obtained by heating calcium carbide and nitrogen; cyanamide: used chiefly as a fertilizer, herbicide, and intermediate in the synthesis of nitrogen compounds.

calcium cyanamide

noun

1. a white crystalline compound formed by heating calcium carbide with nitrogen. It is important in the fixation of nitrogen and can be hydrolysed to ammonia or used as a fertilizer. Formula: CaCN 2

Word History and Origins

Origin of calcium cyanamide¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Calcium cyanamide has assumed importance in agriculture since the discovery of its economic production in the electric furnace, wherein calcium carbide takes up nitrogen from the atmosphere to form the cyanamide with the simultaneous liberation of carbon.

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It appears that with soils which are not rich in humus or not deficient in lime, calcium cyanamide is almost as good, nitrogen for nitrogen, as ammonium sulphate or sodium nitrate; but it is of doubtful value with peaty soils or soils containing little lime, nor is it usefully available as a top-dressing or for storing.

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Modern chemists, however, made it from nitrogen of the very air we breathe, and in Germany it was made during the war from ammonia and calcium cyanamide, both of which may be obtained from the air.

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