Sodium nitrate from fertilizer and drain cleaner

This video shows the reaction of sodium hydroxide (drain cleaner) with ammonium nitrate (fertilizer).

You might think that ammonium nitrate is wayyyy better than sodium nitrate. In fact this is not true: Ammonium nitrate is less suitable for redox reactions (e.g. black powder) and a detonation can only be achieved if you have some initial explosive, which I don´t.

Stay tuned for my next video: POTASSIUM nitrate from ammonium nitrate and potash!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• ammonium
• sodium
• natrium
• nitrat
• nitrate
• hydroxide
• hydroxid
• ammonia
• ammoniak
• salpeter
• salt
• peter
• niter
• nitre
• fertilizer
• dünger
• drain
• cleaner
• abfluss
• reiniger
• chemical
• reaction
• chemische
• reaktion
• heat
• wärme
• expthermic
• exotherm
• evaporate
• verdampfen
• eindampfen
• impurity
• verunreinigung
• firework
• feuerwerk
• pyrotechnics
• pyrotechnik
• pyro
• feuer
• fire
• danger
• gefahr
• explosion

[steveu235]

real nice video I have drain cleaner that has I think aluminum bits in it "Think drano" Can I use it? Also I have drain cleaner which is also NaOH but mixed with sodium carbonate and NACl "Salt" can I use that as well I also Have pure NaOH but it is more expensive and would like to conserve it for other experiments

[sciencoking]

@steveu235 an elegant solution to the problem with the aluminium grains is to pour the drain cleaner onto a sieve and pour water on the pellets. The aluminium will barely react and you get a not too strong solution of NaOH. Boil off the water on a stove to get the crude solid

[flamingchucknorris]

why would you even want to make sodium nitrate if you already have ammonium nitrate? isnt ammonium nitrate stronger? good vid tho.

[sciencoking]

@flamingchucknorris Sodium (or better potassium) nitrate works much better for many experiments (black powder for example) than ammonium nitrate, unless what you want to do is produce a very fast explosion.

[PizzaPower98]

Does this work if u use fluid drain cleaner??

[sciencoking]

@PizzaPower98 I wouldn't do that, it contains other chemicals like hypochlorite and more tensides, which would contaminate the product.

[demnlordd666]

like how ya have window screen material in your funnel to make sure your filter wont fall through. just had one do that to me yesterday. got 2 cheap plastic funnels from Kragen car parts place for like 1.50$ each. one wide one long. the top side was wide, great for pouring into but the opening at the bottom was big as a quarter. my filter went right through into my keeper container and had to re filter everything.

[sciencoking]

@ifartwell You could accidentally ignite the mixture if you heat it to strongly

[sciencoking]

@wil7vin correct.

[wil7vin]

the fertalizer has ammonium nitrate in it right ? and you combine it with soduim hydroxide from the drain cleaning there by making sodium nitrate ...