Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Chile saltpeter (large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile)
Sodium nitrate is a white deliquescent solid very soluble in water. It is a readily available source of the nitrate anion (NO3−), which is useful in several reactions carried out on industrial scales for the production of , pyrotechnics, and other explosives, glass and pottery vitreous enamel, food preservatives (esp. meats), and solid rocket propellant. It has been mined extensively for these purposes.
History
The first shipment of saltpeter to Europe arrived in England from Peru in 1820 or 1825, right after that country's independence from Spain, but did not find any buyers and was dumped at sea in order to avoid customs toll.
[S. H. Baekeland "Några sidor af den kemiska industrien" (1914) Svensk Kemisk Tidskrift, p. 140.][Friedrich Georg Wieck, Uppfinningarnas bok (1873, Swedish translation of Buch der Erfindungen), vol. 4, p. 473.] With time, however, the mining of South American saltpeter became a profitable business (in 1859, England alone consumed 47,000 metric tons).
fought the War of the Pacific (1879–1884) against the allies
Peru and
Bolivia and took over their richest deposits of saltpeter. In 1919, Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff determined its
crystal structure using X-ray crystallography.
Occurrence
The largest accumulations of naturally occurring sodium nitrate are found in
Chile and
Peru, where
nitrate salts are bound within mineral deposits called caliche ore.
[Stephen R. Bown, A Most Damnable Invention: Dynamite, Nitrates, and the Making of the Modern World, Macmillan, 2005, , p. 157.] Nitrates accumulate on land through marine-fog precipitation and sea-spray oxidation/desiccation followed by gravitational settling of airborne NaNO
3, KNO
3, NaCl, Na
2SO
4, and I, in the hot-dry desert atmosphere.
El Niño/La Niña extreme aridity/torrential rain cycles favor nitrates accumulation through both aridity and water solution/remobilization/transportation onto slopes and into basins; capillary solution movement forms layers of nitrates; pure nitrate forms rare veins. For more than a century, the world supply of the compound was mined almost exclusively from the
Atacama desert in northern Chile until, at the turn of the 20th century, German chemists
Fritz Haber and
Carl Bosch developed a process for producing
ammonia from the atmosphere on an industrial scale (see
Haber process). With the onset of World War I, Germany began converting ammonia from this process into a synthetic
Chilean saltpeter, which was as practical as the natural compound in production of
gunpowder and other munitions. By the 1940s, this conversion process resulted in a dramatic decline in demand for sodium nitrate procured from natural sources.
Chile still has the largest reserves of caliche, with active mines in such locations as Valdivia, María Elena and Pampa Blanca, and there it used to be called white gold.[ Sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sodium sulfate and iodine are all obtained by the processing of caliche. The former Chilean saltpeter mining communities of Humberstone and Santa Laura were declared UNESCO World Heritage sites in 2005.
]
Synthesis
Sodium nitrate is also synthesized industrially by neutralizing nitric acid with sodium carbonate or sodium bicarbonate:
- 2 HNO3 + Na2CO3 → 2 NaNO3 + H2O + CO2
- HNO3 + NaHCO3 → NaNO3 + H2O + CO2
or also by neutralizing it with sodium hydroxide (however, this reaction is very exothermic):
- HNO3 + NaOH → NaNO3 + H2O
or by mixing stoichiometric amounts of ammonium nitrate and sodium hydroxide, sodium bicarbonate or sodium carbonate:
- NH4NO3 + NaOH → NaNO3 + NH4OH
- NH4NO3 + NaHCO3 → NaNO3 + NH4HCO3
- 2NH4NO3 + Na2CO3 → 2NaNO3 + (NH4)2CO3
Uses
Most sodium nitrate is used in fertilizers, where it supplies a water-soluble form of nitrogen. Its use, which is mainly outside of high-income countries, is attractive since it does not alter the Soil pH. Another major use is as a complement to ammonium nitrate in explosives. Molten sodium nitrate and its solutions with potassium nitrate have good Thermostability (up to 600 °C) and high Heat capacity. These properties are suitable for thermally annealing metals and for storing thermal energy in solar applications.
Food
Sodium nitrate is also a food additive used as a preservative and color fixative in cured meats and poultry; it is listed under its INS number 251 or E number E251. It is approved for use in the EU,[UK Food Standards Agency: ] US[US Food and Drug Administration: ] and Australia and New Zealand.[Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code] Sodium nitrate should not be confused with sodium nitrite, which is also a common food additive and preservative used, for example, in deli meats.
Thermal storage
Sodium nitrate has also been investigated as a phase-change material for thermal energy recovery, owing to its relatively high melting enthalpy of 178 J/g.
Steel coating
Sodium nitrate is used in a steel coating process in which it forms a surface of magnetite layer.
Health concerns
Studies have shown a link between increased levels of nitrates and increased deaths from certain diseases including Alzheimer's disease, diabetes mellitus, stomach cancer, and Parkinson's disease: possibly through the damaging effect of nitrosamines on DNA; however, little has been done to control for other possible causes in the epidemiological results.
Substantial evidence in recent decades, facilitated by an increased understanding of pathological processes and science, exists in support of the theory that processed meat increases the risk of colon cancer and that this is due to the nitrate content. A small amount of the nitrate added to meat as a preservative breaks down into nitrite, in addition to any nitrite that may also be added. The nitrite then reacts with protein-rich foods (such as meat) to produce NOCs (nitroso compounds). NOCs can be formed either when meat is cured or in the body as meat is digested.[ "The Associations between Food, Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Risk of Colorectal Cancer", World Cancer Research Fund (2010)]
However, several things complicate the otherwise straightforward understanding that "nitrates in food raise the risk of cancer". Processed meats have no fiber, vitamins, or phytochemical antioxidants, are high in sodium, may contain high fat, and are often fried or cooked at a temperature sufficient to degrade protein into nitrosamines. Nitrates are key intermediates and effectors in the primary vasculature signaling which is necessary for all mammals to survive.
See also
Further reading
-
Jones, Grinnell (1920). "". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 34 (3): 391–431.
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External links
