Investigation of sodium nitroprusside and its ruthenium analogues

Abstract

This thesis describes the work conducted in two main areas - one concerning sodium nitroprusside, and the second concerning its ruthenium analogues. The first chapter is a general introduction to the historical background to the work. Chapter II reports the experimental work concerning the reactions of sodium nitroprusside with various amines and the conclusions drawn from this and earlier work with other compounds concerning the in vivo reaction when nitroprusside is employed as a hypotensive agent. Chapter III discusses the decomposition of nitroprusside and examines various detection methods for cyanide and thiocyanate; the effect of the enzyme rhodanese on the compound is also studied. Chapter IV is a review of the structure and bonding of nitrosyl complexes of ruthenium, a brief look at their reactions is also presented. Chapter V describes the preparation of sodium pentacyanonitrosyruthenate(II) , its physical properties and a mechanistic study of its reactions with hydroxide, sulphide, amines and carbanions; comparison to the iron analogue nitroprusside is made where appropriate. Chapter VI describes the preparation of sodium pentachloronitrosylruthenate(II), its physical properties and chemical reactions. The results from clinical tests of this and the pentacyanonitrosyl complex are reported.