Chemical Forums

Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Kartiky14 on February 24, 2012, 06:07:19 AM

Title: The Spirit of nitre
Post by: Kartiky14 on February 24, 2012, 06:07:19 AM

Why is it inconvenient to manufacture Nitric acid from atmospheric nitrogen??

Title: Re: The Spirit of nitre
Post by: Arkcon on February 24, 2012, 08:03:50 AM

Can you find a hint in the structure of nitrogen gas?  FWIW, we do make nitric acid from atmospheric nitrogen -- there's just a lot of important intermediate steps.

Title: Re: Spirit of Nitre
Post by: Caustikola on February 24, 2012, 02:04:13 PM

Atmospheric Nitrogen exists as N2 (of course it's a triple bond between the N atoms. Preparing HNO3 entails oxidation of N from 0 to +5. While it is  possible to oxidize atmospheric Nitrogen from 0 to +2 in NO by electric sparking, it will probably require a series of steps before you get Nitrogen at +5 oxidation state and the temperatures required will be extremely high and uneconomical

Title: Re: The Spirit of nitre
Post by: mrshaikh1960 on February 24, 2012, 05:52:22 PM

By using hydrogen per oxide