Sulfur and potassium nitrate

The NO2 can also be produced by reactions between sulfur and potassium nitrate (KNO3) with the formation of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) as shown in reactions (2.3) and (2.4) ... 

Once the reactive tendencies of potassium nitrate were unleashed it was simply a matter of time before the third vital ingredient, charcoal, was added to complete the famous gunpowder recipe of charcoal, sulfur and potassium nitrate. Needless to say, much time and effort were expended before the alchemists produced a successful product. 

Gunpowder is simply a mixture of charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate. Carbon and S react with 0 in the nitrate, and the N in the nitrate also releases heat in converting to N2 (the K combines with something to form the smoke). The reactions are approximately... 

Sulfuric acid was one of the first chemicals to be produced industrially on a large scale. Until the early 1700s, sulfuric acid was produced in glass jars of several liters in which sulfur and potassium nitrate, KNO, were heated. Pyrite was often substituted for sulfur because of... 

The first propellant employed for firearms was black powder (also colloquially known as gunpowder), which is a mixture of charcoal (carbon), sulfur, and potassium nitrate, with typical proportions of 15% carbon, 10% sulfur, and 75% potassium nitrate. 

Methyl-4-nitropyridine-l-oxide has been prepared by the nitration of 3-methylpyridine-l-oxide hydrochloride with a mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid and potassium nitrate. The I)reparation of this compound has been mentioned briefly by Talikowa, but no experimental details have been given. 

Sulfuric acid 96% (technical quality) and diethyl ether (technical quality) were purchased from Bie Bemtsen A/S, Sandbaekvej 7, DK-2610 Roedovre, Denmark and used without further purification. Isoquinoline (97%) and potassium nitrate (99%) were purchased from Aldrich Chemical Company, Inc. and used without further purification. 

Equipment needed for the above procedures is not always available in the standard laboratory. A useful and widely used method for preparing solutions of dinitrogen pentoxide in nitric acid involves the distillation of mixtures of oleum and potassium nitrate in absolute nitric acid. Another method uses a solution of sulfur trioxide and ammonium nitrate in nitric acid. Although the original report states that solutions of 28 2 % dinitrogen pentoxide in nitric acid can be prepared via this method, a later report suggests that concentrations higher than 30 % are not attainable. 

Charcoal is made from wood ashes, sulfur is mined, and potassium nitrate (called Chilean saltpeter) was mined from dry cliffs on the coast of Chile, where fish-eating seabirds had their nests and restroom facilities. Over many centuries, this source accumulated in layers mary feet thick, and this was adequate for all nitrate needs until the end of the nineteenth century when deposits began to deplete faster than birds could replenish them and transportation and purification (odor is just part of the problem) kept costs high-... 

If this is the approximate temperature where diffusion becomes probable, it is therefore also die temperature where a chemical reaction between a good oxidi2er and a mobile, reactive fuel becomes possible. This is a very important point from a safety standpoint - the potential for a reaction may exist at surprisingly low temperatures, especially with sulfur or organic fuels present. Table 5.2 lists the Tammann temperatures of some of the common oxidizers. The low temperatures shown for potassium chlorate and potassium nitrate may well account for the large number of mysterious, accidental ignitions that have occurred with compositions containing these materials. 

A modern substitute for black powder is Pyrodex. It is safer to transport, store, and use, and is cleaner burning than conventional black powder. Pyrodex incorporates both charcoal and sulfur but in much smaller proportions than in black powder, and potassium nitrate in addition to other ingredients. Pyrodex also contains potassium perchlorate, sodium benzoate, and dicyandiamide.57... 

The nitration of thiazoles can also be conducted in organic solvents (e.g., dichlo-roethane) with a nitrating mixture consisting of trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, its anhydride, and potassium nitrate. Here the yields of the nitro derivatives are substantially higher than with the sulfuric-nitric acid mixture [361],... 

Nitration of pyrrolo[l,2-a]quinoxaline by adding a mixture of the compound and potassium nitrate to concentrated sulfuric acid yields a mixture of 25% 1-nitro and 48% 3-nitro derivatives. No significant reaction was observed with potassium nitrate in trifluoroacetic acid, or in fuming nitric acid alone or fuming nitric acid and acetic anhydride." The attempts to avoid the use of sulfuric acid were made because of the ease with which the heterocycle undergoes sulfonation. Thus treatment with concentrated sulfuric acid at room temperature readily gave the 3-sulfonic acid. Apparently the electrophile is too large to allow formation of detectable amounts of the isomeric 1-sulfonic acid. The 1-methyl and... 

Sulfur has been known since prehistoric times. Because it is flammable, alchemists regarded sulfur as essential to combustion. The chemical properties of sulfur and its compounds, including the reaction of sulfur with mercury (Hg) to form a red solid, mercuric sulfide (HgS), and the use of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) as a solvent of metals, were discovered at about C.E. 250-300. Gunpowder, a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (KNO3), was first used for military purposes in China in C.E. 904. 

Lenzi and Rapson (134) further studied the reaction of Eq. 69 in 2.32M and 5.0W sulfuric acid in the presence of sodium perchlorate, potassium perchlorate, lithium nitrate, sodium nitrate, and potassium nitrate. These salts increased the rate of the reaction and decreased the inhibiting effect of chlorine. These conditions were attributed to an effective increase in the acidity, due to the decrease in "free" water which results upon the addition of the ionic salts. This interpretation enabled Lenzi and Rapson to explain the very high order of the reaction with respect to the concentration of sulfuric acid. One additional complication is that Cl03 does not seem to affect the rate of chlorous acid disproportionation (120), as would be required by Eq. 81. 

In approximately 1740 in Great Britain, Ward began to produce the acid on a large-scale by burning sulfur with potassium nitrate. In 1746, Dr. Roebuck of Birmingham introduced the lead chamber process and built a factory in Scotland to manufacture the acid. This practice quickly spread throughout Europe and North America... 

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