Preparation of Ammonium Nitrate

Method 1 Preparation of ammonium nitrate from ammonia and nitric acid... 

Method 2 Preparation of ammonium nitrate from sodium nitrate, ammonia, and carbon... 

WaMenherg, British Patent, 1889, No. 12451 Craig, German Patent, 1896, No. 92172 Roth, ibid., 1904, No. 149026 compare Fairley, ibid., 1896, No. 97400 Lennox, ibid., 1896, No. 96689 Rudeloff, ibid., 1905, No. 166427 Naumann, ibid.. No. 166746. A summary of the Patent literature on the preparation of ammonium nitrate is given by Oelker, Zeitsch. ges. Schiess-Sprengstoffwesen, 1916, 9, 81. 

Preparation of Ammonium Nitrate by the Ammonia Soda Process.—In 1875 Gerlach (English Patent, 2,174) attempted to produce ammoninm nitrate from ammonium carbonate and Chile saltpetre according to the equation —... 

In the commercial preparation of ammonium nitrate, pure ammonia (NH3) in the gas phase is combined with concentrated aqueous nitric acid (HNO3). This produces a highly concentrated aqueous solution of ammonium nitrate, which is then dried and formed into small pellets (called prills). The molecular equation shows the complete formula of each compound involved. Both intact and dissociated compounds are shown, followed by the (aq) to designate an aqueous solution when appropriate ... 

The Hungarian, Kaspar Weindl used blackpowder in blasting. Swedish Bofors Industries began to manufacture blackpowder. Preparation of ammonium nitrate was undertaken by Glauber. The German, Kunkel prepared mercury fulminate. 

This can be prepared by the controlled reduction of a nitrite (nitrate(lll)) or nitrate. Cautious heating of ammonium nitrate gives dinitrogen oxide by an internal oxidation-reduction process ... 

Ammonium nitrate has a negative heat of solution in water, and can therefore be used to prepare freezing mixtures. Dissolution of ammonium nitrate in anhydrous ammonia, however, is accompanied by heat evolution. In dilute solution the heat of neutralization of nitric acid using ammonia is 51.8 kj/mol (12.4 kcal/mo). 

Diazoaminobenzene has been prepared by the action of sodium nitrite on aniline sulfate by the action of sodium nitrite on aniline hydrochloride by the action of sodium nitrite and sodium acetate on aniline hydrochloride by the action of ammonium nitrate and hydrogen sulfide on aniline hydrochloride in the presence of iron and by the action of amyl nitrite on aniline. ... 

It is strongly recommended that our procedure1 not be used to prepare guanidine nitrate. Mixtures of ammonium nitrate and organic materials not much different from the mixture in the procedure are now used extensively as commercial explosives. The aqueous mixture of Note 101 is similar to some aqueous mixtures used in sizable quantities for rock blasting a confined mixture of this sort is especially hazardous. Only a few laboratories devoted to explosives research have the barricades and remote control devices needed to run this preparation of guanidine nitrate without risk. 

C03-0032. Calculate the mass of ammonium nitrate needed to prepare 100. mL of aqueous solution whose concentration is 0.400 M. 

C03-0035. Calculate the concentration of ammonium nitrate in a solution prepared by dissolving 3.20 g of the salt in enough water to make 100. mL of solution, then diluting 5.00 mL of this solution to a volume of 25.00 mL. 

The preparation of powder explosives is in essence simple. In the case of mixtures of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil in particular, the only requirement is a method of mixing which does not cause undue breakdown of the absorbent grains of ammonium nitrate. Hand mixing is employed for small quantities, otherwise some form of rotating container or gently stirred vessel. 

A mixture of ammonium nitrate and 2,4,6-trinitroanisole, prepared as an explosive by mixing the hot components, ignited spontaneously and later exploded violently. 

In general, improvised explosives are too complicated to prepare or too weak for steel cutting and most other sabotage tasks. However, if the problem is to get a quantity of lower velocity explosive for cratering or moving a large volume of earth or rock, a good simple one can be prepared from ammonium nitrate fertilizer. 

Alkyl nitrates can be obtained from the catalysed reaction of triflates or tosylates with a quaternary ammonium nitrate [33, 34]. The procedure has been used with success for the preparation of glycosyl nitrates [33]. 

Ceric ammonium nitrate is prepared by electrolytic oxidation of cerous nitrate in nitric acid to ceric nitrate, followed by the addition of ammonium nitrate solution. It is separated from the solution by crystaUization. It may be prepared alternatively by dissolving cerium(II) oxide, Ce0 H20 in concentrated nitric acid followed by treatment with ammonium nitrate. 

Historically, the following four main steps must be mentioned the preparation of ethylammonium nitrate [C2H5NH3][N03] by Paul Walden in 1914 is recognized by many as the first IL. This compound has a melting point of 12°C but owing to its high reactivity has not really found a use [1]. This was the outcome of his studies of conductivity and electrical properties of salt solutions, especially nonaqueous solutions of organic salts. He conducted very systematic studies with different solvents and salts, and his special interest was in ammonium salts. But Walden himself pointed on the work... 

The insertion of a second oxygen atom in a sugar furanose ring in essence converts that moiety to an acetal. This modiftcation leads to another false substrate for viral reverse transcriptase. Glycosilation of the silylated purine (46-1) with chiral dioxolane (46-2) prepared in several steps from anhydromannose in the presence of ammonium nitrate affords the coupling product as a mixture of anomers (46-3). The mixture of products is then separated on a chromatographic column. The desired diastereomer (46-3) is reacted with ammonia to afford the product (46-4)... 

Several tetrammino-derivatives of gold salts have been prepared. When dilute ehloraurie acid saturated with ammonium nitrate is added to a cold saturated solution of ammonium nitrate and the mixture treated with ammonia gas at ordinary temperature, a precipitate of fetrammino-auric nitrate, [Au(NH3)4](N03)3, is obtained. Tctrammino-aurie nitrate is soluble in water and may be crystallised from warm water. It may be precipitated from solution by the addition of any soluble nitrate, but with potassium, sodium, or ammonium nitrate it forms double salts. Thus, potassium nitrate if added to a concentrated solution of tetrammino-auric nitrate forms the compound [Au (NH 3).,] (NO 3)j.KNO. j, which crystallises from solution in needles. 

Nitrato-pentammino-cobaltic Nitrate, [Co(NH3)5N03](N03)2. —If an aqueous ammoniacal solution of eobaltous nitrate be oxidised by means of air and then heated with excess of ammonium nitrate, the nitrato-salt is formed. It is more easily prepared by dissolving eobaltous carbonate in warm dilute nitric acid and then warming the mixture with concentrated aqueous ammonia. Iodine is thereafter added, one atom for every atom of cobalt in solution, and the whole warmed until the iodine dissolves and a precipitate of hexammino-cobaltic iodido-nitrate is formed. It is filtered and the residue washed W ith dilute aqueous ammonia. The filtrate is treated with nitric acid, and the precipitate of aquo-pentammino-nitrate is converted into the nitrato-salt by heating with more nitric acid. The change from aquo-1 JOrgensen, J. prakt. Chem., 1881, 23, 227. 

E. Groschuff studied the binary system NB4NO3—HNO3 over a range of temp. —10° to 70° and he prepared the solubility or fusion curves shown in Fig. 87. The solubility of ammonium nitrate in nitric acid is expressed in mols. of the salt in 100 mols. of nitric acid ... 

At the Bobingen factory hexamine dinitrate is prepared by the action of 50% nitric acid on hexamine at a temperature below 15°C, using spent acid from the nitration of pentaerythritol. NH4N03-HN03 is obtained by the reaction of equi-molecular amounts of ammonium nitrate and concentrated nitric acid. 

The solution is then heated to 70-75°C and a mixture of 114 parts of ammonium nitrate with 192 parts of hexamine dinitrate is introduced gradually in portions (hexamine dinitrate is prepared beforehand by treating 65 parts of 70% nitric acid with a solution of 40 parts of hexamine in 70 parts of water, at 15°C the mixture is then cooled to 5°C and the dinitrate is filtered off in 95% yield). 

Bachmann et al. [64] also described the conditions under which the substance (XII) (DPT) can be prepared in a yield of about 20% from hexamine and nitric acid, in the presence of acetic anhydride and acetic acid, at temperatures between 15 and 30°C. On nitrolysis with nitric acid in the presence of ammonium nitrate and acetic anhydride at 60-65°C, this substance gives octogen in 80% yield. 

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