Production
Nitrogen gas is an industrial gas produced by the fractional distillation of liquid air, or by mechanical means using gaseous air (i.e., pressurized reverse osmosis membrane or Pressure swing adsorption). Commercial nitrogen is often a byproduct of air-processing for industrial concentration of oxygen for steelmaking and other purposes. When supplied compressed in cylinders it is often called OFN (oxygen-free nitrogen).
In a chemical laboratory it is prepared by treating an aqueous solution of ammonium chloride with sodium nitrite.
- NH4Cl(aq) + NaNO2(aq) → N2(g) + NaCl(aq) + 2 H2O (l)
Small amounts of impurities NO and HNO3 are also formed in this reaction. The impurities can be removed by passing the gas through aqueous sulfuric acid containing potassium dichromate. Very pure nitrogen can be prepared by the thermal decomposition of barium or sodium azide.
- 2 NaN3 → 2 Na + 3 N2
Read more about this topic: Nitrogen
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