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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Foobarz on April 02, 2012, 01:56:14 PM

Title: NO2 in water?
Post by: Foobarz on April 02, 2012, 01:56:14 PM

Ok I am thoroughly confused. NO2 in water cannot be a simple acidic oxide reaction since the N in NO2 has an oxidation state of +4, and neither HNO3 nor HNO2 have that oxidation state. So NO2 in water must be redox, but how? I've seen some that say this occurs

NO2+H2O  :rarrow: HNO3+HNO2

but I've also seen this

NO2+H2O  :rarrow: HNO3+NO

Which one is correct?

Title: Re: NO2 in water?
Post by: Olympiad_Tutor on April 02, 2012, 03:20:39 PM

wiki gets most of the stuff right. so it is the first one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_dioxide

Title: Re: NO2 in water?
Post by: explosci on April 03, 2012, 04:16:14 AM

It is the first one.  No2 reacts with water giving a mix of nitric and nitrous acids.

Title: Re: NO2 in water?
Post by: AWK on April 03, 2012, 04:28:57 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostwald_process

Title: Re: NO2 in water?
Post by: Foobarz on April 03, 2012, 03:19:15 PM

Oh my now I'm confused by the Ostwald process thing. . . ???

Title: Re: NO2 in water?
Post by: cjby69 on January 01, 2016, 07:56:14 PM

NO2 reacts with water, giving a mix of nitric and nitrous acids.

However, when HNO2 is heated it decomposes into HNO3 and NO.

Since the Ostwald process occurs at high temperatures, you end up with HNO3 and NO, but normally you'd get HNO3 and HNO2.