DirtyHarry - 25-1-2015 at 19:05
Hi All, i am new to register on this forum but am a long time follower with an interest in chemistry. I recently bought 4kg of calcium nitrate dirt
cheap and wish to make a nitrate salt that is a bit more usefull. So i was wondering if there is a way to make other nitrate salts like sodium or
potassium nitrates using the calcium nitrate as the starting material? i was thinking along the lines of this video http://youtu.be/xOjtlIxYYbs by nurdrage. or perhaps using sodium hydroxide or sodium carbonate to exchange ions, filter out the precipitated chalk
or the calcium hydroxide then evaporate the water and purify the end result. I also thought maybe if i used potassium chloride there would be
potassium nitrate and calcium chloride formed and Kno3 is soluble in acetone and calcium chloride isn't so purifying it this way may work or
saturating the solution of both in acetone and having the calcium chloride precipitate out. Can i please get an opinion on if any of these methods
would work? or on others who have attempted this and their procedure in doing so? or just a waste of time and chemicals? Any Help would be greatly
appreciated. Thanks, Harry.
gdflp - 25-1-2015 at 20:40
If you already have calcium nitrate, simply add any soluble salt of an alkali metal carbonate or sulfate will precipitate out calcium carbonate or
sulfate directly. Carbonate would be preferable as CaCO3 is highly insoluble in water. I would recommend against using hydroxides, as Ca(OH)2 is
slightly soluble in water. Using dilute solutions will make filtration easier, but it will take longer to evaporate the water. What do you need
sodium/potassium nitrate for, in many cases calcium nitrate will work fine?
DirtyHarry - 25-1-2015 at 22:16
I wanted to use it to make some nitrocellulose for a demonstration. since when you add the sulfuric acid to the calcium nitrate it precipitates the
highly insoluble calcium sulfate in the nitrating mixture which is hard to remove since filtering it out is difficult and i dont have the means yet to
distill some nitric acid for myself. i would prefer if i could have a nitration mixture free of unwanted solids. i know i could buy the other nitrates
if i really wanted to but cash is tight and if i could make some from other chemicals i have already i will.