Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Fertilisers with Acetone & Methylated Spirits

Smooth203 - 18-3-2018 at 07:57

I was playing around with Tomorite (a tomato plant fertiliser) and some acetone and methylated spirits, testing samples of each together. In both, a layer formed on top and when shook, formed a smaller layer underneath, in which there was a solid (the top layer had gone). I've removed this solid and found it was needle like crystals that could be clumped together... I'm not sure what it could be, maybe some kind of nitrogen, potassium or phosphorus compound.. any suggestions?

Ubya - 18-3-2018 at 08:22

the composition of the fertilizer is
"NItrogen (N) total 4%
ureic nitrogen 2,1%
phosphorus pentoxide soluble in neutral ammonium citrate and water 3% (1,3% P)
potassium oxide soluble in water 8% (6,6% K)"

so there is urea, potassium, phosphate, ammonium and citrate ions
you mixed acetone or methanol to the aqueous solution, literally doing a mixed solvent precipitation
Dipotassium phosphate is slightly soluble in alcohol, so maybe it could have precipitated, but its crystals are not needle shaped.
urea has needle crystals, but i don't know its solubility in acetone or methanol

Smooth203 - 18-3-2018 at 08:36

Quote: Originally posted by Ubya  
the composition of the fertilizer is
"NItrogen (N) total 4%
ureic nitrogen 2,1%
phosphorus pentoxide soluble in neutral ammonium citrate and water 3% (1,3% P)
potassium oxide soluble in water 8% (6,6% K)"

so there is urea, potassium, phosphate, ammonium and citrate ions
you mixed acetone or methanol to the aqueous solution, literally doing a mixed solvent precipitation
Dipotassium phosphate is slightly soluble in alcohol, so maybe it could have precipitated, but its crystals are not needle shaped.
urea has needle crystals, but i don't know its solubility in acetone or methanol



Hmm, maybe it could be urea then.. but it's difficult because the company doesn't seem to say what form the cations are in :/

Ubya - 18-3-2018 at 09:08

try melting the crystals, urea melts at 133°C, any phosphate will melt at higher temperatures

unionised - 18-3-2018 at 13:20

Quote: Originally posted by Ubya  
t

so there is urea, potassium, phosphate, ammonium and citrate ions

There won't be any citrate ions there.
It's most likely a mixture of ammonium phosphate potassium phosphate and potassium nitrate.

Ubya - 18-3-2018 at 17:07

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
Quote: Originally posted by Ubya  
t

so there is urea, potassium, phosphate, ammonium and citrate ions

There won't be any citrate ions there.
It's most likely a mixture of ammonium phosphate potassium phosphate and potassium nitrate.


yes i know it sounds strange even to me, but on the label there's written "phosphorus pentoxide soluble in neutral ammonium citrate and water", so there must be some citrate, otherwise it doesn't make much sense to put useless informations on the lable

Bert - 18-3-2018 at 17:37

What was your reason for adding the organic solvents to the water based liquid fertilizer?

Smooth203 - 20-3-2018 at 09:26

Quote: Originally posted by Bert  
What was your reason for adding the organic solvents to the water based liquid fertilizer?


To see if I could get a precipitate falling out of solution or something like that, just to see what happened as well.