Chemical Forums
General Forums => Generic Discussion => Topic started by: Qaiphyx on February 12, 2018, 10:01:36 PM
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Say sodium nitrate, whats the rough yield that you get per pound? Is it worth it to make yourself or better to just buy it? It runs about 70$ per gallon where I live.
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I doubt you will make it cheaper.
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Where I live, I don’t think I can buy Nitric or sodium nitrate. But I can buy Potassium Nitrate for 11$ a pound. That’s only 4.486 moles. I ran a quick calculation, (I could be wrong) and at a 100% yield, that only yields 187.1 ml of nitric acid. That 11$ doesn’t take into account if you have any sulfuric acid. Unless I’m way off(way low on theoretical yield), than Borek is correct for sure. I would almost bet you can’t buy anything higher than 60% Nitric though. I could be wrong.
P.S.
I just figured this based on potassium nitrate. I did not take into account the sulfuric, which I believe has to be in excess
@ Borek: If my calculations are wrong based on the nitrate salt that I have access to, can you let me know, so I can review what I have done wrong please?
After review, I would delete my post because I believe I’m way off. I don’t know how to delete my post. Nor do I know how to use sub/super script on this forum
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187 mL of a pure nitric acid looks OK, yes, you need a strong acid in excess - plus you need to be able to collect and purify the acid, such a hardware doesn't come without a hefty price tag. Just nitrate is only a small part of the price.
Commercially available nitric acid is typically sold at ~68%, which is an azeotrope mixture with water.
I don’t know how to delete my post.
In general - you can't. Once posted it is there to stay.
Nor do I know how to use sub/super script on this forum
There are formatting buttons above the edit field. You can either use ready shortcuts for some of the commonly used numbers (lower row) or sup/sub buttons above (mark the text, click the button).
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Ok, thanks for the responses. Looks like its best to just purchase. Thanks for doing the math as well!