I am searching for a UK source of ammonium nitrate. It is such a useful nitrate salt- a source of nitrous oxide gas, ammonia and a precursor of useful
metal nitrate salts. I note that cold packs are often quoted as containing ammonium nitrate, but many of them contain urea- another useful chemical,
but not what I am looking for at this moment in time.
Does anyone know of any ammonium nitrate-containing cold pack brands in the UK?
Obviously, if it is a US-sold brand, then it is of no use to me- I am based in the UK.
TheAlchemist - 16-5-2011 at 09:05
All of my local retail pharmacies/chemists- Boots included- sell urea or ammonium chloride based instant cold packs.
However, I am looking for AN based cold packs.
Could anyone point me towards some UK brands?
I have searched online, but in most instances, the chemical constituents of the cold pack in question are not specified.hyperkinetic - 16-5-2011 at 09:58
It doesn't look like there are any obvious ones. Searching for UK MSDS sheets on cold packs only brings up urea and the like.
Have you checked to see if there is a legal reason? hissingnoise - 16-5-2011 at 11:23
If you have NH<sub>4</sub>Cl and NaNO<sub>3</sub> you can do a metathesis using hot concentrated sols!
NaCl can be removed from the cooled solution and reasonably pure NH<sub>4</sub>NO<sub>3</sub> precipitated from a reduced
volume . . .
Wizzard - 16-5-2011 at 11:34
Most have been phased out, I used to be able to get them at CVS here in the States, but I've not seen any since.entropy51 - 16-5-2011 at 16:23
Most have been phased out, I used to be able to get them at CVS here in the States, but I've not seen any since.
The CVS around hereabouts still have tons of cold packs with NH4NO3. They seem to come and go.Username - 16-5-2011 at 16:47
A source for CAN (ammonium nitrate and calcium carbonate) in the UK is the cold packs available from Clas Ohlson. They are called 'Ice Power Cool
Packs'
Once the chalk is filtered out, these packs will yield around 150g of reasonably pure ammonium nitrate.
Also, the instant cold packs available through lloyds pharmacy contain AN with an easily removed wax coating.
However, Nitro-chalk fertilizer is a much cheaper source for CAN and at a fraction of the cost. It's also very widely available. TheAlchemist - 17-5-2011 at 16:07
Just to clarify: is CAN a distinct ammonium compound containing both ammonium and calcium cations (a mixed binary cation salt), or is it simply a
mixture of AN and Ca Carbonate? (hence, the agricultural term 'nitrochalk').
