For The Decomposition Of Organic Matter, Concentrated Nitric Acid (HNO3) Is One Of The Most Widely Used Digestion Reagents

 

Concentrated Nitric Acid

The automobile industry's expanding usage of elastomers, synthetic rubbers, polyurethane foam, improved aircraft performance, and the chemical industry are some of the elements that support the expansion of concentrated nitric acid.

A colourless, caustic liquid called Concentrated Nitric Acid is created when ammonia is catalytically oxidised using the Ostwald process. Extremely corrosive and oxidising is nitric acid. It reacts with a wide range of metals, with the exception of gold and platinum. Nitric acid is used to produce both organic and inorganic nitrate and nitro molecules. Numerous products, including explosives, fertilisers, dyes, elastomers, synthetic rubber, and others, utilise these nitrates and nitro compounds. Numerous sectors, including steel, metallurgy, chemicals, and others use it.

Concentrated Nitric Acid is used in the production of ammonium nitrate, trinitrotoluene, adipic acid, nitrobenzene, toluene diisocyanate, and nitroglycerine. Solid nitric acid, a class 2 oxidizer, somewhat speeds up the rate of burning of the contacts. Secondary explosives are produced in this location. Other nitrogen fertilisers like calcium ammonium nitrate and urea ammonium nitrate can be substituted with ammonium nitrate or used directly. Pneumonitis and potentially fatal pulmonary edoema are brought on by long-term exposure to nitric acid vapour.

Nitric oxide, a substance created when Concentrated Nitric Acid is reduced with copper, is also used to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome and pulmonary hypertension. As a result of its potential to treat COVID-19 patients, the demand for concentrated nitric acid has increased. The demand for nitric acid has decreased as a result of the temporary shutdown of end-use industry production facilities, particularly those that make such autos.

The catalytic oxidation of ammonia is the main process for producing Concentrated Nitric Acid. In the procedure created by the German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald in 1901, oxygen or air is used in conjunction with a platinum gauze catalyst to oxidise ammonia gas in stages, resulting in nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide. Nitric acid is created when nitrogen dioxide is absorbed by water. By distilling with sulfuric acid, the resulting acid-in-water solution—which contains between 50 and 70 percent acid by weight—can be dried off.

A brownish-yellow solution is created when nitric acid breaks down into water, nitrogen dioxide, and oxygen. It is a potent oxidising agent and strong acid, totally ionised into hydronium (H3O+) and nitrate (NO3) ions in aqueous solution (one that acts as electron acceptor in oxidation-reduction reactions). Nitration of glycerol and toluene, which results in the explosives nitroglycerin and trinitrotoluene (TNT), respectively; manufacture of nitrocellulose; and oxidation of metals to the appropriate oxides or nitrates are only a few of the several significant reactions of nitric acid.