Question

When potassium cyanide reacts with water, will the resulting solution be acidic, alkaline or neutral? Justify your answer.

Answer 1

The resulting solution will be alkaline because $KCN$ is a salt of strong base and weak acid. It undergoes anionic hydrolysis when dissolved in water.
$KCN+HOH\rightleftharpoons K^{+}+C{N}^{-}+H^{+}+O{H}^{-}$
$H^{+}+C{N}^{-}\rightleftharpoons HCN$ (anionic hydrolysis).
$HCN$ is a weak acid because it gives less $H^{+}$ ions in the solution while $KOH$ is strong electrolyte and remains completely dissociated.