Ammonium Cyanate: Double Displacement Reactions

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Urea

Wӧhler was trying to make ammonium cyanate, but discovered instead that the double displacement reaction that occurred produced urea. His discovery was purely accidental, but it answered some deep questions about science and chemistry that were hot topics at the time.

Urea was known to have been created in biological processes, but had never been synthesised. It was amazing to discover that something produced from biology could be made by purely chemical means. This was an earth shattering finding to those who supported vitalism, a moment that believed that these two fields would not mix, and was the dawn of organic chemistry and our understanding of life as a complex electrochemical system.

Surprisingly, Wӧhler also isolated or