Ammonium nitrate

[trish armstrong]

I'm in Taree, but I'd hate to borrow and never be able to replace it.
Well looks like we can't have that prac anymore. The teachers can surely come up with something else. I am looking into the instant ice packs, So far, most are ammonium nitrate free.
Thanks, Trish

[rae]

Trish

What prac are you doing maybe we can come up with an alternative for you.

PS which high school do you work for?

[ellice]

Hi all,
We are doing the prac 'Measuring the Heat of Solution' which uses ammonium nitrate and sodium hydroxide, and I need an alternative for the ammonium nitrate. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
Ellice.

[lada]

Hi Ellice,
is ammonium nitrate endothermic? I think potassium thiosulfate when dissolving will give you endothermic reaction. Is that, what you need it for?
Lada

[lada]

Also ammonium chloride in water

[ellice]

Hi Lada,
Yes, endothermic. I have found these alternatives in case anyone needs them in future;
sodium acetate, sodium nitrate, sodium thiosulfate.
Ellice.

[sunray18]

This is what we use every year:
EXOTHERMIC
1 Calcium in Water; 1-2 grains of Calcium + 10 mLs Water
2 Magnesium and 0.5M HCl.: 10 cm piece Mg ribbon + 10 mLs 0.5M HCl.
3 Manganese Dioxide and Hydrogen Peroxide : 1 gm Manganese Dioxide = 10 mLs H2O2
ENDOTHERMIC
1 Ammonium Chloride in Water : 2 gms Ammonium Chloride +10 mLs Water
2 Potassium Chloride and Water: 2 gms Potassium Chloride + 10 mLs Water
3 Sodium Thiosulfate and 0.1M Hydrochloric Acid; 2 gms Sodium Thiosulfate + 10 mLs HCl
Found two great ones on the internet this year that are even better though..Citric Acid/Sodium Bicarb: 25 ml of citric acid solution [about 1m I think], with 15gm of Sodium Bicarbonate - no toxic chemicals!
THE BEST ONE: using Barium Hydroxide and ammonium thiocyanate..
32gm barium Hydroxide and 17gm Ammonium thiocyante just mixed together in a flask.. goes to freezing very quickly.
have fun

[Robb]

Hi All,

Hmmmmmm...!


Cheers,

Robb.....

[Narelle01]

Is there a suitable substitute for ammonium nitrate.
No one here seems to believe me when I tell them that we can no longer buy it, and when the small amount we do have is gone, its gone.
Yet it keeps being ordered for a Yr8 prac...and demo. Surely at that level there is another chem that would do the same thing???

The whole order is Mg Ribbon, HcL, Sodium Crbonate, NaOh, and testtubes, foil and matches....not sure whats happening in this prac though.

[lada]

If they want to demonstrate endothermic reaction, we use KCl in water or ammonium chloride. It soes not give you such a temp difference as ammnium nitrate, but good enough.
Lada

[DavidPeterson]

Most nitrates are endothermic with respect to solubility. Other options are citric acid (just use the cheap stuff you get for baking from the supermarket) or sodium thiosulphate.

A really good demo is ammonium thiocyanate in water - check out video demos on youtube.

[fibreweb]

I discovered totally by accident about a week ago as i was preparing a Potassium Iodide solution that it also is markedly endothermic.

I have just done a very quick comparison of a small spatula of KI in 10mls of water compared to the same amount of Ammonium Nitrate in the same amount of water plus a control using 3 temperature probes and our Lab Quest

I got some surprising results. On the first run the KI dropped the temp by 12.5 degrees from 21.7 to 9.2 within 30 seconds and the Ammonium Nitrate dropped by 10.36 from 20.46 to 10.1 by 60 seconds.
On my second run the KI dropped to 9.3 degrees and the Ammonium Nitrate to 8.2.

Whilst there is some degree of error as I had to put one lot of chemical in and then the next and couldn't stir either of them it does show that Potassium Iodide could be used as a substitute for Ammonium Nitrate.

[RosalieM]

Good on you Wendy! I love designing my own little experiments as I think of them Sometimes they even come in handy, like yours!

[RosalieM]

we have a container of it labelled

Ammonium Nitrate "off the farm"

It was here when I got here. I just had a go at it and it got quite cold quite quickly (I didn't use a thermometer) so that may be an option if your teachers just can't handle the fact that we can't buy it anymore. I had a teacher quite surprised yesterday when I said we didn't have any (my 'off the farm' container was nowhere to be found! Besides, I'd never seen that one used, I've always made them come up with an alternative). She said something along the lines of "what has it come to when they are banning THAT??" I guess she's forgotten all the other times I've told her... but then again, I just found my "off the farm" container while putting away one of her pracs!

[mtg]

Yes, Sodium Thiosulphate goes cold really quickly, quick and easy and not a nitrate. Sorry too lazy to do test results.

[nickykinz]

When I first started here the 8/9 students used to do an investigation using Urea to cool things down. Haven't done it for a few years so can't remember the details.

[AmandaDLG]

HI I buy all my Chemicals from Serrata...But Im after Ammonium Nitrate & they dont sell it. Any one know where I could get it from.. Im only a NEW Labbie so I only know Serrata...TIA

[Labbie]

It will not be sold any more in Australia, we have been told we can use what we have, but we can not purchase any more EVER.

[Xenon]

Hi Amanda
Ammonium Nitrate is now a banned chemical in schools; terrorists use it for making bombs. There's another thread about it here.

[Jazz]

check your pm