[Qaiphyx]

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.

[Borek]

I doubt you will make it cheaper.

[Elric82]

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

[Borek]

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).

[Qaiphyx]

Ok, thanks for the responses. Looks like its best to just purchase. Thanks for doing the math as well!