Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of NH4CN Polymers

The NH₄CN polymers synthesized in this work were obtained following the methodology detailed in [10 (link),37 (link)] using a Biotage Initiator⁺ microwave reactor purchased from Biotage (Uppsala, Sweden). The initial equimolar concentrations of NaCN and NH₄Cl were always 1 M. The synthesis of the control polymers prepared at 80 °C is described in [29 (link)]. All syntheses were carried out in triplicate. The details about the reaction time and temperature for each reaction and the conversion values reached for each case are described in Table S1. All the corresponding average values of conversion, α (%), are shown as green lines in Figure 1.
All security and safety measures were taken during the development of the experiments, considering the safety information provided by the Sigma-Aldrich supplier (St. Louis, MO, United States) about NaCN and NH₄Cl. On the other hand, although HCN-derived polymers have been shown as biocompatible [19 (link),20 (link),21 (link),22 (link),23 (link),24 (link)], the cyanide polymers synthesized in the present work were handled with the same security measures as NaCN.