Sciencemadness Discussion Board

wanting to prepare a small amount of Nitric acid

Actinium - 10-1-2015 at 15:15

I'm thinking of doing a small batch of Nitric acid and was going to use NH4NO3 from instant cold packs.
The cold packs have both the liquid and NH4NO3 neatly separated in separate external pouches. Can I use the nitrate as is or does it need to be purrified prior to it being used?

gdflp - 10-1-2015 at 15:51

How are you going to prepare the nitric acid? What color are the ammonium nitrate prills? Does the package list the contents as ammonium nitrate? The answer depends on all of the above questions.

Actinium - 10-1-2015 at 18:11

the ammonium nitrate is white, no there is no mention on the package of the amount need to weigh it up and have trouble finding its msds. as far as the way i was going to do it was Conc. Sulfuric acid (98.6%) chilled, NH4NO3 added and distilled over and air bath.

gdflp - 10-1-2015 at 18:28

As long as you are certain it is ammonium nitrate, it should work for distilling nitric acid. Just remember that your yield will be lower due to the ammonium nitrate not being pure.

Bert - 10-1-2015 at 18:55

Look up the cold pack's distributor/manufacturer, they must have an MSDS available for their product. That will tell you what's in it-

A lot of cold packs are now made with urea, Calcium ammonium nitrate or even other salts, all types are good for SOMETHING, but not all are useful for your purpose. The CAN packs work, but the stoichiometry and hence proportions you will need are different.

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Amos - 10-1-2015 at 19:16

If those are Walgreen's brand by any chance, I've found those to be pretty much pure, definitely good enough for nitric acid.

Actinium - 10-1-2015 at 20:09

never had this much trouble getting the msds, anyway. white prills and it says water and ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), Kroger brand.