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Is there a way one could turn potassium cyanide into potassium nitrate (actually oxidize the cyanide anion)? It's fairly easy to convert it to ammonia by hydrolysis, but the conversion of ammonia to nitrate is difficult (bionitrification is out of question). Would peroxide be able to attack it?

Francis L.
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    You could try adding copper nitrate solution, the copper will precipitate out as cyanide leaving you with a potassium nitrate solution. Pour the solution in a dish and let the water evaporate and you will get potassium nitrate salt. – Nisarg Bhavsar Apr 24 '21 at 03:12
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    What is the background of this question ? Why do you want to do so ? – Poutnik Apr 24 '21 at 06:28
  • it's more of a thought experiment. I saw someone make cyanide from charcoal and pot ash in a furnace. I was wondering if it was possible to obtain gunpowder from it with equally primitive means. – Francis L. Apr 24 '21 at 07:17
  • @Francis L. Potassium cyanide cannot be made from charcoal and pot ashes, for lack of $\ce{N}$ atoms. Pot ashes are made of different substances, none of them contain $\ce{N}$ atoms. Some nitrogen derivate has to be added to the mixture. – Maurice Jan 16 '22 at 10:58
  • I didnt mention its done under atmosphere of wood gas. It's called a bucher process – Francis L. Jan 16 '22 at 12:23

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If we were to directly oxidise potassium cyanide, it would form potassium cyanate, which then oxidises to nitrogen gas and CO2. In this way, a one-pot reaction is unfeasible.

The viable method would be to dissolve excess potassium cyanide in water, before adding 1 Eq.(https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/a/64924/77157) silver nitrate. These reactants would form silver cyanide and aqueous potassium nitrate in a precipitation reaction.

The silver cyanide precipitate can be extracted to leave water and potassium nitrate. Of course, we can pour the solution into an evaporating dish, so the reactants form potassium nitrate.