Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Inorganic Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: TJAL on April 19, 2004, 12:10:12 PM
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With the exception of Beryllium the Group II nitrates thermally decompose by:
2Mg(NO3)2 ----- 2MgO + 4NO2 + 02
This results in 3 different oxygen species. Does anybody know the exact mechanism for this reaction? I thought it might be:
2NO3(-ve 1) ----- 2NO2 (+1) + O (-ve 2)
NO3(-ve 1) + NO2 (+ve 1) ------ 2NO2 + O(radical) (*2, radicals form O2)
I'm not very certain though, my teacher wasn't sure either. He suggested another mechanism where two negative ions combined but I wasn't very sure about it. ???
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:o Combination of 2 anions? Like charges repel FYI (highly unlikely)
I don't know the mechanism myself thou :)
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That was why i wasn't convinced by by teacher's explanation
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Can you post your teacher's mech?
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In my opinion this reaction shows rather radical mechanism. Since thermal decomposition of nitrates needs rather quite high temperatures a nitrogen monooxide should be taken into account.