### Topic: Roughly how much nitric acid would you get from 1lb of nitrate salt?  (Read 2328 times)

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#### Qaiphyx

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##### Roughly how much nitric acid would you get from 1lb of nitrate salt?
« on: February 12, 2018, 10:01:36 PM »
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$per gallon where I live. #### Borek • Mr. pH • Administrator • Deity Member • Posts: 24884 • Mole Snacks: +1628/-395 • Gender: • I am known to be occasionally wrong. ##### Re: Roughly how much nitric acid would you get from 1lb of nitrate salt? « Reply #1 on: February 13, 2018, 02:44:41 AM » I doubt you will make it cheaper. ChemBuddy chemical calculators - stoichiometry, pH, concentration, buffer preparation, titrations.info, pH-meter.info, PZWT_s1 #### Elric82 • Regular Member • Posts: 17 • Mole Snacks: +4/-0 ##### Re: Roughly how much nitric acid would you get from 1lb of nitrate salt? « Reply #2 on: February 13, 2018, 05:48:49 PM » Where I live, I don’t think I can buy Nitric or sodium nitrate. But I can buy Potassium Nitrate for 11$ 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
« Last Edit: February 13, 2018, 06:21:44 PM by Elric82 »

#### Borek

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##### Re: Roughly how much nitric acid would you get from 1lb of nitrate salt?
« Reply #3 on: February 14, 2018, 03:41:11 AM »
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.

Quote
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).
ChemBuddy chemical calculators - stoichiometry, pH, concentration, buffer preparation, titrations.info, pH-meter.info, PZWT_s1

#### Qaiphyx

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##### Re: Roughly how much nitric acid would you get from 1lb of nitrate salt?
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2018, 07:48:33 PM »
Ok, thanks for the responses. Looks like its best to just purchase. Thanks for doing the math as well!