Question

Write balanced chemical equation for the preparation of nitric acid from potassium nitrate.

Answer 1

$\underset{\mathrm{potassium}\mathrm{nitrate}}{\underset{}{{\mathrm{KNO}}_3}}+\underset{\mathrm{sulphuric}\mathrm{acid}}{\underset{}{{\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4}}\to \underset{\mathrm{potassium}\mathrm{hydrogen}\mathrm{sulphate}}{\underset{}{{\mathrm{KHSO}}_4}}+\underset{\mathrm{nitric}\mathrm{acid}}{\underset{}{{\mathrm{HNO}}_3}}$

• Nitric acid is obtained in laboratory by distilling concentrated sulphuric acid with potassium nitrate.
• Sulphuric acid is non-volatile in nature so on reacting with volatile compound we get simple volatile nitric acid.