jamit
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nitric acid using barium nitrates
I realize that the production of nitric acid has been discussed many times before -- maybe over discussed. It seems like the production of nitric
acid is a rite of passage among amateur/home chemist.
Usually, ammonium, potassium or sodium nitrate salt is added to sulfuric acid to make nitric acid followed by distillation. But I wondered if anyone
had used a difference source of nitrate salt to make nitric acid. The principle and the reaction will be similar to potassium nitrate but is there
anything I am overlooking in using barium nitrate.
I have lots of barium nitrate and want to use it to make nitric acid. Do you think that is a good idea? do you think barium nitrate is a good
source for making nitric acid. I realize that barium salts are toxic but if I add sulfuric acid to it, it will produce nitric acid and barium
sulfate which is non-toxic. am I missing something? Just checking before I start my distillation of barium nitrate and sulfuric acid.
Any help or tips or confirmation or refutation will be welcomed.
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j_sum1
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If you are using the standard method of distillation with sulfuric acid, be aware that barium sulfate is highly insoluble -- and i presume barium
bisulfate will be also but you will need to check that. This has implications for flask cleaning and handing of the byproduct.
Obviously you want to exercise care in the disposal of said byproduct too.
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Fulmen
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You will have the same challenges as with calcium nitrate (discussed here several times).
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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j_sum1
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True. But BaSO4 is even less soluble than CaSO4. I am not sure how much it cakes up or how solid it gets. I guess there is one way to find out.
Thinking about the reaction products is one of the first things one should do when considering modification of a procedure.
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NedsHead
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Do you have an Australian contact for barium and/or strontium nitrate Jay? I'm looking for about a half kg of each
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j_sum1
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http://auschems.com/index.php/chemicals/b/barium-nitrate-ar-...
http://auschems.com/index.php/chemicals/chemical-s/strontium...
These should do the trick. 
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NedsHead
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I knew you would come up with something, Thanks Jay!
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j_sum1
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Heh. No problem. If only I cold afford to buy everything that I know how to find. And if only I had the time to play with everythng I could get.
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clearly_not_atara
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Since barium sulfate precipitation could be an issue, you can mitigate this by performing the addition dropwise with stirring, maybe? The flask can be
cleaned with EDTA:
https://www.google.com/patents/US4030548
[Edited on 2-3-2017 by clearly_not_atara]
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Sulaiman
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jamit
Barium nitrate is a valuable reagent,
if allowed, sell it via eBay and use the cash to buy a cheaper and less toxic nitrate source.
or do a private mole:mole swap of nitrate sources with someone who wants barium ?
(the cost of postage will possibly be less than the cost of correct disposal)
based on my experience of only two runs of Ca(NO3)2 ... stir !
stirring will keep the by-product mobile, and reduce the quantity of NOx produced
At least barium nitrate is anhydrous, but before starting you should consider the m.w. (261.34),
an expensive source of the nitrate ion ....
and what will you do with the barium sulphate product ?
(where your money went to)
(BaS may be interesting ?)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barium_sulfate#History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barium_sulfide
Here in UK, barium salts are banned 
(explosives and poisons precursors) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/licensing-for-hom...
If you go ahead, I think that you should try for a stoichiometric mix of barium nitrate, sulphuric acid and water
to produce 69% or less nitric acid
- which can be filtered from the barium sulphate without the need to distill,
I expect (but have not tried) that the lower concentration your target, the greater the yield,
due to nitric acid adsorbed in the barium sulphate slush, which, if like calcium sulphate, is difficult to filter.
More dilute acid would allow decantation once the sulphate precipitates completely,
which should be fairly quick for the dense barium sulphate, I guess.
If you use drain-unblocker sulphuric acid then whatever contaminants are in it will somehow be in your nitric acid product,
in which case a distillation is probably worthwhile.
[Edited on 2-3-2017 by Sulaiman]
[Edited on 2-3-2017 by Sulaiman]
CAUTION : Hobby Chemist, not Professional or even Amateur
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UnclearReactor
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I was curious too, so I tried a small batch (1 mole each reactant). It turns out that it's a lot of Barium Nitrate for a very small volume of
Sulfuric acid. So little that separating the Nitric acid product was impractical; most of it was trapped in the Barium Sulfate cake.
TL;DR Not worth it. Low yield.
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