Nitrous oxide from ammonium nitrate

Setup The molar masses are as follows 80.05 g/mol for NH4NO3,44.02 g/mol for NiO, and 18.02 g/mol for HjO. The conversion factors from nitrous oxide to ammonium nitrate and from nitrous oxide to water are, respectively ... 

How would you distinguish ammonium nitrate from all other nitrates How would you distinguish the third oxide of nitrogen — nitrous oxide — from a) the. other oxides of nitrogen, b) air, c) oxygen, d) hydrogen, e) nitrogen, (/") carbon dioxide ... 

Ammonium nitrate mixed with litharge expels ammonia from the solid salt at ordinary temp. T. J. Pelouze found that when ammonium nitrate is treated with a little sulphuric acid, ammonium sulphate and nitric acid are formed the same result obtains with the dried salt in fifty times itB weight of sulphuric acid provided the temp, is below 120° but at 150°, nitrous oxide mixed with a little nitric oxide and nitric acid vapour is evolved, and sulphuric acid and water remain. If the salt be mixed with ten times its weight of sulphuric acid, about 75 per cent, of the. salt forms nitric acid and ammonium sulphate, and 25 per cent, forms nitrous... 

Davis and Abrams [8] report the following experimental observations in support of this supposition. On heating a solution of ammonium nitrate in sulphuric acid to 150°C, nitric acid cannot be distilled, but nitrous oxide is evolved, probably from the decomposition of nitramine. If, however, the solution is kept for a long time between 90 and 120°C, nitric acid can be obtained by distillation. The authors ... 

The solution which results when ammonium nitrate is dissolved in a large excess of concentrated sulfuric acid evidently contains nitroamide.1 If the solution is warmed directly, no nitric acid distils from it but at about 150° it gives off nitrous oxide which corresponds to the dehydration of the nitroamide by the action of the strong acid. The nitroamide moreover, by the action of the same acid, may be hydrated to yield nitric acid, slowly if the solution is digested at 90° to 120°, under which conditions the nitric acid distils out, and rapidly at ordinary temperature in the nitrometer where mercury is present which reacts with the nitric acid as fast as it is formed. 

J. Persoz said that nitrous oxide reacts with moist potassium hydroxide, forming nitric acid and ammonia, or ammonium nitrate, but later considered that these substances were derived from some ammonium nitrate mechanically mixed with the gas prepared from that salt. M. Berthelot could find no trace of ammonia... 

Nitrate explosives. The term explosion is applied to the effect produced by a sudden change in the pressure of one or more gases. This may be the result of either chemical or physical changes—that is, the sudden liberation or absorption of gases in chemical reactions or the sudden formation of gases from either liquids or solids. Because certain nitrates decompose readily with liberation of gaseous products, these substances are useful in compounding a variety of commercial explosives. Ammonium nitrate is stable under ordinary atmospheric conditions and may be handled safely in small quantities, even at elevated temperatures. When the dry salt is heated, it decomposes with liberation of nitrous oxide and water,... 

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