Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Contaminants within solution of NH4NO3?

Velzee - 19-1-2016 at 12:07

Hello SM!

After months of eyeing it, I finally decided to extract and recrystallize the NH4NO3 from a ~6 year old unused ice pack I had. Yesterday I opened it up, and I studied the beige pellets of AN within. I dissolved them in around 150mL of tap water, and the solution remain beige/light brown, even after filtering. I left it on a warm surface to evaporate, and after an hour or two, a white substance could be found on the sides of the beaker, and a few(3 or 4) small particles, colored not unlike cardboard, were floating around the liquid. Today, some of the particles became larger, and more appeared, and more of the white substance on the sides of the beaker, were seen, as shown below:

L5TveMUh.jpg - 86kB

Any idea of what these particles are?

EDIT: I may have posted this in the incorrect forum section, please forgive me.

[Edited on 1/19/2016 by Velzee]

[Edited on 1/19/2016 by Velzee]

Detonationology - 19-1-2016 at 14:04

Most likely, it is iron contamination.

Mabus - 19-1-2016 at 14:21

It's usually an anti-caking agent. No idea what compound. Cold packs tend to have them, like the one from NurdRage's potassium nitrate video.
Though normally it should've been removed during filtration. Could be iron or some dye.

Velzee - 19-1-2016 at 14:54

Any ideas on removing the impunities? There's quite a lot, and it goes right through the filter paper.