Of nitric acid

Nitro-compounds are prepared by the direct action of nitric acid. The reaction is greatly facilitated if a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid is used. 

Peroxonitrous acid, HOONO. Isomer of nitric acid (HNO2 plus H2O2). 

Hydroxylamine is derived from ammonia by replacing one hydrogen atom by a hydroxyl group. It is prepared by the electrolytic reduction of nitric acid, using a lead cathode ... 

Industrially nitrogen monoxide is prepared by the catalytic oxidation of ammonia as an intermediate in the manufacture of nitric acid (p. 238). The molecule of nitrogen monoxide contains an odd number of electrons and can be represented as... 

Dinitrogeri pentoxide is the anhydride of nitric acid and is prepared by removing water from pure nitric acid by means of phosphorus (V) oxide. It is a crystalline solid having the ionic structure of (N02) (N03) , nitronium nitrate (the nitronium ion is mentioned later). It decomposes above 273 K, thus ... 

The chemical properties of nitric acid require us to consider the structure first. The vapour of pure nitric acid (i.e. anhydrous) is probably composed of molecules of hydrogen nitrate , which structurally is a resonance hybrid of such forms as ... 

Nitrates are prepared by the action of nitric acid on a metal or its oxide, hydroxide or carbonate. All nitrates are soluble in water. On heating, the nitrates of the alkali metals yield only oxygen and the nitrite ... 

The precipitation of the barium sulphate must be performed with care, otherwise high results are obtained owing to occlusion of barium chloride in the barium sulphate. This is avoided by the following method, which has the further advantage that the tedious initial removal of the excess of nitric acid by evaporation is unnecessary. 

Insert the tube E to within 1 inch of the bottom of the Carius tube, open the tap slightly, and allow the acid (about 10 drops) to run in. Then withdraw the dropping-tube, taking great care that traces of nitric acid are not deposited on the upper sides of the tul. ... 

The simpler nitrop>arafIins (nitromethane, nitroethane, 1- and 2-nitroproj)ane) are now cheap commercial products. They are obtained by the vapour phase nitration of the hydrocarbons a gaseous mixture of two mols of hydrocarbon and 1 mol of nitric acid vapour is passed through a narrow reaction tube at 420-476°. Thus with methane at 476° a 13 per cent, conversion into nitro methane is obtained ethane at 420° gives a 9 1 mixture of nitroethane (b.p. 114°) and nitromethane (b.p. 102°) propane at 420° afifords a 21 per cent, yield of a complex mixture of 1- (b.p. 130-6°) and 2-nitropropane (b.p. 120°), nitroethane and nitromethane, which are separated by fractional distillation. 

Dissolve 10 g. of lactose (1) in 100 ml. of nitric acid, sp. gr. 115, in an evaporating dish and evaporate in a fume cupboard until the volume has been reduced to about 20 ml. The mixture becomes thick and pasty owing to the separation of mucic acid. When cold, dilute with 30 ml. of water, filter at the pump and set the filtrate A) aside. Wash the crude acid with cold water. Purify the mucic acid by dissolving it in the minimum volume of dilute sodium hydroxide solution and reprecipitating with dilute hydrochloric acid do not allow the temperature to rise above 25°. Dry the purified acid (about 5 g.) and determine the m.p. Mucic acid melts with decomposition at 212-213°. 

Saccharic acid. Use the filtrate A) from the above oxidation of lactose or, alternatively, employ the product obtained by evaporating 10 g. of glucose with 100 ml. of nitric acid, sp. gr. 1 15, until a syrupy residue remains and then dissolving in 30 ml. of water. Exactly neutralise at the boiling point with a concentrated solution of potassium carbonate, acidify with acetic acid, and concentrate again to a thick syrup. Upon the addition of 50 per cent, acetic acid, acid potassium saccharate sepa rates out. Filter at the pump and recrystaUise from a small quantity of hot water to remove the attendant oxahc acid. It is necessary to isolate the saccharic acid as the acid potassium salt since the acid is very soluble in water. The purity may be confirmed by conversion into the silver salt (Section 111,103) and determination of the silver content by ignition. 

Picric acid, the 2 4 6-trinitro derivative of phenol, cannot be prepared in good yield by the action of nitric acid upon phenol since much of the latter is destroyed by oxidation and resinous products are also formed. It is more convenient to heat the phenol with concentrated sulphuric acid whereby a mixture of o- and p-phenolsulphonic acids is obtained upon treatment of the mixture with concentrated nitric acid, nitration occurs at the two positicsis mela to the —SOjH group in each compound, and finally, since sulphonation is reversible, the acid groups are replaced by a third iiitro group yielding picric acid in both cases ... 

C. Palladium on carbon catalyst (5 per cent. Pd). Suspend 41-5 g. of nitric acid - washed activated carbon in 600 ml. of water in a 2-litre beaker and heat to 80°. Add a solution of 4 1 g. of anhydrous palladium chloride (1) in 10 ml. of concentrated hydrochloric acid and 25 ml. of water (prepared as in A), followed by 4 ml. of 37 per cent, formaldehyde solution. Stir the suspension mechanically, render it alkaUne to litmus with 30 per cent, sodium hydroxide solution and continue the stirring for a further 5 minutes. Filter off the catalyst on a Buchner funnel, wash it ten times with 125 ml. portions of water, and dry and store as in B. The yield is 46 g. 

During my Cleveland years, I also continued and extended my studies in nitration, which I started in the early 1950s in Hungary. Conventional nitration of aromatic compounds uses mixed acid (mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid). The water formed in the reaetion dilutes the acid, and spent aeid disposal is beeoming a serious environ-... 

The Raman spectrum of nitric acid shows two weak bands at 1050 and 1400 cm. By comparison with the spectra of isolated nitronium salts ( 2.3.1), these bonds were attributed to the nitrate and nitronium ion respectively. Solutions of dinitrogen pentoxide in nitric acid show these bands , but not those characteristic of the covalent anhydride , indicating that the self-dehydration of nitric acid does not lead to molecular dinitrogen pentoxide. Later work on the Raman spectrum indicates that at —15 °C the concentrations of nitrate and nitronium ion are 0-37 mol 1 and 0 34 mol 1 , respectively. The infra-red spectrum of nitric acid shows absorption bands characteristic of the nitronium ion. The equivalence of the concentrations of nitronium and nitrate ions argues against the importance of the following equilibrium ... 

The state of aqueous solutions of nitric acid In strongly acidic solutions water is a weaker base than its behaviour in dilute solutions would predict, for it is almost unprotonated in concentrated nitric acid, and only partially protonated in concentrated sulphuric acid. The addition of water to nitric acid affects the equilibrium leading to the formation of the nitronium and nitrate ions ( 2.2.1). The intensity of the peak in the Raman spectrum associated with the nitronium ion decreases with the progressive addition of water, and the peak is absent from the spectrum of solutions containing more than about 5% of water a similar effect has been observed in the infra-red spectrum. ... 

In equimolar mixtures of nitric acid and water a monohydrate is formed whose Raman spectrum has been observed. There is no evidence for the existence of appreciable concentrations of the nitric acidium ion in aqueous nitric acid. 

Nitric acid being the solvent, terms involving its concentration cannot enter the rate equation. This form of the rate equation is consistent with reaction via molecular nitric acid, or any species whose concentration throughout the reaction bears a constant ratio to the stoichiometric concentration of nitric acid. In the latter case the nitrating agent may account for any fraction of the total concentration of acid, provided that it is formed quickly relative to the speed of nitration. More detailed information about the mechanism was obtained from the effects of certain added species on the rate of reaction. 

Sulphuric acid catalysed nitration in concentrated nitric acid, but the effect was much weaker than that observed in nitration in organic solvents ( 3.2.3). The concentration of sulphuric acid required to double the rate of nitration of i-nitroanthraquinone was about 0-23 mol 1, whereas typically, a concentration of io mol 1 will effect the same change in nitration in mixtures of nitric acid and organic solvents. The acceleration in the rate was not linear in the concentration of catalyst, for the sensitivity to catalysis was small with low concentrations of sulphuric acid, but increased with the progressive addition of more catalyst and eventually approached a linear acceleration. 

The nitronium ions produced in this way tend to repress the selfdehydration of the nitric acid and therefore the net concentration of nitronium ions is not proportional to the concentration of the catalyst. When sufficient sulphuric acid has been added to make the self-ioniza-tion of nitric acid relatively unimportant, the nitronium ions will be produced predominantly from the above ionization, and the acceleration will follow a linear law. 

Therefore, in the cases of both additives, the kinetic law for the catalysis will assume a linear form when the concentration of the added species, or, in the case of sulphuric acid, the nitronium ion generated by its action, is comparable with the concentration of the species already present. This effect was observed to occur when the concentration of additive was about o-2 mol 1, a value in fair agreement with the estimated degree of dissociation of nitric acid ( 2.2.1). 

Nitration in aqueous solutions of nitric acid Added water retards nitration in concentrated nitric acid without disturbing the kinetic order of the reaction. The rate of nitration of nitrobenzene was depressed sixfold by the addition of 5 % of water, (c. 3 2 mol 1 ), but because of the complexity of the equilibria involving water, which exist in these media, no simple relationship could be found between the concentration of water and its effect on the rate. 

The operation of the nitronium ion in these media was later proved conclusively. "- The rates of nitration of 2-phenylethanesulphonate anion ([Aromatic] < c. 0-5 mol l i), toluene-(U-sulphonate anion, p-nitrophenol, A(-methyl-2,4-dinitroaniline and A(-methyl-iV,2,4-trinitro-aniline in aqueous solutions of nitric acid depend on the first power of the concentration of the aromatic. The dependence on acidity of the rate of 0-exchange between nitric acid and water was measured, " and formal first-order rate constants for oxygen exchange were defined by dividing the rates of exchange by the concentration of water. Comparison of these constants with the corresponding results for the reactions of the aromatic compounds yielded the scale of relative reactivities sho-wn in table 2.1. 

The state of nitric acid in g8-ioo% sulphuric acid In this section the pioneering work of Hantzsch will several times he mentioned. That later techniques made it necessary to modify his conclusions should not be allowed to obscure the great originality of his approach since investigations using these media provided the most compelling evidence for the existence of the nitronium ion. 

The two absorption bands, at 1050 and 1400 cm , which appear in the Raman spectra of solutions of nitric acid in concentrated sulphuric acid are not attributable to either of the acid molecules. In oleum the lower band appears at 1075-1095 cm. That these bands seemed to correspond to those in the spectra of anhydrous nitric acid and solid dinitrogen pentoxide caused some confusion in the assignment of the spectrum. The situation was resolved by examining the Raman spectra of solutions of nitric acid in perchloric or selenic acids , in which the strong absorption at 1400 cm is not accompanied by absorption at about 1050 cm . Thus, the band at 1400 cm arises from the nitronium ion, and the band at about 1050 cm can be attributed in the cases of nitric acid and solid dinitrogen pentoxide to the nitrate ion formed according to the following schemes ... 

The conversion of nitric acid into another species in concentrated sulphuric acid was shown by the fact that, whereas the ultraviolet... 

The depression of the freezing point of sulphuric acid by the addition of nitric acid has historically been the subject of confusion. Hantzsch suggested that, because sulphuric acid is the stronger acid, the following equilibria might exist in these solutions ... 

Solutions of nitric acid in 100% sulphuric acid have a high electrical conductivity. If nitric acid is converted into a cation in these solutions, then the migration of nitric acid to the cathode should be observed in electrolysis. This has been demonstrated to occur in oleum and, less conclusively, in concentrated acid, observations consistent with the formation of the nitronium ion, or the mono- or di-protonated forms of nitric acid. Conductimetric measurements confirm the quantitative conversion of nitric acid into nitronium ion in sulphuric acid. ... 

Related studies have been made using perchloric acid. From mixtures of anhydrous nitric and perchloric acids in the appropriate proportions, Hantzsch " claimed to have isolated two salts whose structures supported his hypothesis concerning the nature of nitric acid in strong mineral acids. He represented the formation of the salts by the following... 

A simple kinetic order for the nitration of aromatic compounds was first established by Martinsen for nitration in sulphuric acid (Martin-sen also first observed the occurrence of a maximum in the rate of nitration, occurrii for nitration in sulphuric acid of 89-90 % concentration). The rate of nitration of nitrobenzene was found to obey a second-order rate law, first order in the concentration of the aromatic and of nitric acid. The same law certainly holds (and in many cases was explicitly demonstrated) for the compounds listed in table 2.3. 

Although the proportion of nitric acid present as nitronium ions does not change between 90% and 100% sulphuric acid, the rate constants for nitration of most compounds decrease over this rai e. Fig. 2.1 illustrates the variation with acidity of the second-order rate constants of the nitration of a series of compounds of widely differing reactivities. Table 2.4 lists the results for nitration in 95% and 100% acid of a selection of less completely investigated compounds. 

NITRATION IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS OF MINERAL ACIDS 2.4.1 The state of nitric acid in aqueous sulphuric acid Nitric acid is completely converted into nitronium ions in concentrated sulphuric acid ( 2.3.1) ... 

The vapour pressure of nitric acid, over solutions in sulphuric acid, reaches a maximum with 84-5 % sulphuric acid, the acidity corresponding to the formation of the monohydrate. ... 

Addition of water to solutions of nitric acid in 90% sulphuric acid reduces rates of nitration. Between 90% and 85% sulphuric acid the decrease in rate parallels the accompanying fall in the concentration of nitronium ions. This is good evidence for the operation of the nitronium ion as the nitrating agent, both in solutions more acidic than 90% and in weakly diluted solutions in which nitronium ion is still spectroscopically detectable. 

If it be assumed that the ionising characteristics of nitric acid are similar to those of the organic indicators used to define the scales of acidity, then a correspondence between the acidity-dependence of nitration and would suggest the involvement of the nitronium ion, whereas a correspondence with Hq would support the h)rpothesis that the nitric acidium ion were active. The analogies with and Hg are expressed in the first and last pairs of the followii equations respectively. The symbol AQ represents anthraquinone, the indicator originally used in this way for comparison with the acidity dependence of the rate of nitration of nitrobenzene ... 

THE STATE OF NITRIC ACID IN INERT ORGANIC SOLVENTS The absence of ions in mixtures of acetic acid and nitric acid is shown by their poor electrical conductivity and the Raman spectra of solutions in acetic acid, nitromethane, and chloroform show only the absorptions of the solvent and molecular nitric acid the bands corresponding to the nitronium and nitrate ions cannot be detected. -... 

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