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For commercial preparation of nitric acid, the production is done through the oxidation process of the anhydrous ammonia to nitric oxide. A more vaporous acid can be easily displaced from its salt through the other one having less of a comparatively volatile acid. This basic principle about the preparation of nitric acid is relatively very useful in the laboratory.
In comparison to sulphuric acid, this acid is more volatile. Hence, it is generally displaced by sulphuric acid from metal nitrates. One noted observation about this preparation is 50gm of the potassium nitrate which is KNO3 and 25ml of concentrated sulphuric acid which is H2SO4 are stored in a round bottom flask.
This set of reactants is heated to about 200 C. But the temperature must not rise more than 200 C. So the concluded chemical equation is:
Another laboratory preparation of nitric acid is when nitric acid is mainly prepared by starting the healing process of potassium nitrate or sodium nitrate with added concentrated sulphuric acid. When the heating is done in a glass tube, the vapours created from nitric acid are then condensed and cooled in a receiver which is mainly cooled by water. The equation showing the complete process of lab preparation of nitric acid equation
Commercial Preparation of Nitric Acid – Ostwald Process
On the commercial or industrial scale, the process of catalytic oxidation of ammonia nitric acid is mainly obtained. This complete process of preparing nitric acid is called the Ostwald process.
In this whole process, conversion of ammonia to nitric acid is mainly done through the following 3 steps:
- Oxidation of ammonia to nitric oxide: Ammonia of about 1:8 by volume is poured and oxidised by air in the presence of a platinum catalyst gauge at a temperature of about 800∘C.
- Oxidation of nitric oxide to nitrogen dioxide: The nitric oxide formed earlier then again is oxidised with the help of air to nitrogen dioxide air at a temperature of about between 100–150∘C. The equation showing the reaction held in this process is: 2NO+O2→2NO2
- Formation of nitric acid: like the previous process the Nitrogen dioxide produced earlier is then converted to nitric acid, the nitric acid is formed by absorbing nitrogen dioxide in water in the presence of air. The reaction explaining this last process is
This complete process of Preparation of Nitric Acid – Ostwald Process comes under commercial preparation of nitric acid.
Manufacture of nitric acid with the help of plants
A. Converter: The converter in plant-based manufacture of nitric acid is made of aluminium and it is fitted with a platinum-rhodium gauze cylinder, the platinum-rhodium gauze cylinder is then closed at the bottom with the help of a silica lid. At the initial stage, the gauze is electrically heated to a temperature of about 800∘C.
When heated a mixture of ammonia and clear air is passed from inside the gauze to the top, and the resulting product is left in the bottom.
B. Oxidation tower: In the oxidation tower The earlier produced nitric oxide containing nitrogen and some water vapour is released out of the converter and when cooled at about 100–150∘C it is passing through coolers to lower the temperature even more.
The nitric oxide is then mixed with more air, and then it gets converted into nitrogen dioxide in the oxidation tower. The following is the equation of this process.
C. Absorption tower: The nitrogen dioxide formed in the oxidation tower is then finally allowed to enter the absorption tower present in the lower end. Sprinkles of water are provided from the top of the tower packed with attached quartz pieces in the lif.
Here in the absorption tower, the nitrogen dioxide is absorbed completely into the water in the presence of air to finally produce nitric acid. The following is the equation of this process.
This whole process is much different from the laboratory preparation of nitric acid.
Laboratory preparation of nitric acid
Concentrating nitric acid: Distillation of the compound can concentrate the aqueous nitric acid produced by the above-mentioned process to approximately 68.5 percent by mass. However, the process of dehydration with the help of concentrated sulphuric acid can raise the concentration of the mass to 98 percent acid.
Lastly, after concentrating and dehydrating, a distillation of concentrated aqueous nitric acid with phosphorus pentoxide results in the formation of anhydrous nitric acid. In the laboratory preparation, nitric acid is mainly prepared and produced in the laboratory by the process of heating a nitrate salt with an amount of definite concentrated sulphuric acid. Vapours created from nitric acid are then further condensed to form a brown liquid in a receiver which is cooled under the temperature of cold water.
The oxides that are dissolved in nitrogen are then removed respectively by redistillation or by blowing a carbon dioxide composed of current to mainly pass the dry air through the warm acid. The following is an example of lab preparation of nitric acid equation
Conclusion
We can easily conclude nitric acid is one of the important oxoacids present in nitrogen. Well in this article we attempted on showing that nitric Acid, the knowledge we gained is on commercial preparation of nitric acid
The physical properties of nitric acid, as well as chemical properties of nitric acid, the structure of nitric acid, and also different preparation methods to produce nitric acid with the help of Ostwald’s process. Other than this, there are also knowledgeable facts about chemical properties such as thermal stability, its oxidising agent, acidic nature, and uses of nitric acid mentioned in this article.
