A. Hantzsch and O. Graul (Ber. 1898, 31, p. 2854) described several series of salts of the nitrolic acids, with particular reference to ethylnitrolic acid. They discriminate between the red or erythro-salts, which are well crystallized, very explosive and unstable compounds, and which regenerate the colourless nitrolic acid on the addition of dilute mineral acids, and the leuco-salts, which are colourless salts obtained by warming the erythro-salts or by exposing them to direct sunlight. These salts cannot be converted either into the red salts or into the free acid. An intensely yellow acid salt is described, as is also a very unstable colourless salt which could not be examined further owing to its very labile nature. The following structural formulae are assigned to these compounds:—
R⋅C  |
N⋅OH | R⋅C |
N(OK) |  O |
R⋅C |
NO2K |
| NO2 | N(:O) | NO | ||||
| nitrolic acid; | erythro-salt; | leuco-salt. | ||||
The acid salts are obtained by the addition of one molecule of alkali to two molecules of the acid in concentrated alcoholic solution at a low temperature. They are unstable compounds which readily split into the red salt and the free acid on standing.
The pseudo-nitrols, RR′:C(NO)(NO2), may be obtained by the action of nitrous acid on the secondary nitroparaffins; by the action of silver nitrite on such bromnitrosoparaffins as contain the bromine and the nitroso group united to the same carbon atom (O. Piloty, Ber., 1902, 35, p. 3093); and by the action of nitrogen peroxide on ethereal solutions of ketoximes (R. Scholl, Ber., 1888, 21, p. 508; G. Born, Ber. 1896, 29, p. 93). They exhibit an intense blue colour when in the liquid condition or dissolved in alkali and possess a very sharp smell. On oxidation with chromic acid they yield dinitrohydrocarbons, and on reduction with hydroxylamine (in alkaline solution) or with potassium sulphydrate give ketoximes, RR′:C:NOH (R. Scholl and K. Landsteiner, Ber., 1896, 29, p. 87).
RR′:C(NO)⋅NO2→RR′:C(NH⋅OH)2 → RR′:C:N⋅OH + NH2OH.
Nitrosohydrocarbons have been prepared in the aliphatic series by the oxidation of the corresponding hydroxylamino compounds. Nitroso-tertiary butane, (CH3)3C⋅NO, is formed when the corresponding hydroxylamine is oxidized by sulphuric monoper acid (E. Bamberger, Ber., 1903, 36, p. 686). A nitrosooctane (CH3)2C(NO)⋅[CH2]2⋅CH(CH3)2, has been obtained by O. Piloty and O. Ruff (Ber., 1898, 31, p. 457) from nitro-di-isobutyl by reducing it to the corresponding hydroxylamino compound with aluminium amalgam and oxidizing this with chromic acid mixture. It is a colourless solid which melts at 54° C. to a deep blue liquid. Numerous nitroso compounds are met with in the aromatic series.
NITROGEN [symbol N., atomic weight 14·01, O＝16]. A
non-metallic chemical element, first isolated in 1772 by D.
Rutherford, who showed that on removing oxygen from air
a gas remained, which was incapable of supporting combustion
or respiration. Nitrogen forms approximately 79% by volume
(or 77% by weight) of the atmosphere; actual values are:
% by volume—79·07 (Regnault), 79·20 (Dumas); % by weight—76·87
(Regnault), 77·00 (Dumas), 77·002 (Léwy), 76·900 (Stas),
77·010 (Marignac). No absolutely accurate determinations
appear to have been made recently. Free nitrogen is also
found in some natural waters and has been recognized in certain
nebulae. In the combined state nitrogen is fairly widely distributed,
being found in nitre, Chile saltpetre, ammonium salts
and in various animal and vegetable tissues and liquids. It is
invariably present in soils, where compounds are formed by
nitrifying bacteria.
Nitrogen may be obtained from the atmosphere by the removal of the oxygen with which it is there mixed. This may be effected by burning phosphorus in a confined volume of air, by the action of an alkaline solution of pyrogallol on air, by passing air over heated copper, or by the action of copper on air in the presence of ammoniacal solutions.
It is also prepared by heating ammonium nitrite (or a mixture of sodium nitrite and ammonium chloride): NH4NO2＝2H2O+N2; by heating a mixture of ammonium nitrate and chloride (the chlorine which is simultaneously produced being absorbed by milk of lime or by a solution of sodium hydroxide): 4NH4NO3+2NH4Cl＝5N2 +Cl2+12H2O; by heating ammonium dichromate (or a mixture of ammonium chloride and potassium dichromate): (NH4), Cr2O7＝Cr2O3+4H2O+N2; by passing chlorine into a concentrated solution of ammonia (which should be present in considerable excess): 8NH3+3Cl2＝6NH4Cl+N2; by the action of hypochlorites or hypobromites on ammonia: 3NaOBr+2NH3＝3NaBr+3H2O+N2; and by the action of manganese dioxide on ammonium nitrate at 180-200° C. It is also formed by the reduction of nitric and nitrous oxides with hydrogen in the presence of platinized asbestos at a red heat (G. v. Knorre and K. Arndt, Ber., 1899, 32, p. 2136); by the oxidation of hydroxylamine (ibid., 1900, 33, p. 30); and by the electrolysis of hydrazine and its salts (E. Ch. Szarvasy, Jour. Chem. Soc., 1900, 77, p. 603)
The chief importance of nitrogenous compounds depends upon their assimilation by living plants, which, in their development, absorb these compounds from the soil, wherein they are formed mainly by the action of nitrifying bacteria. Since these compounds are essential to plant life, it becomes necessary to replace the amount abstracted from the soil, and hence a demand for nitrogenous manures was created. This was met in a very large measure by deposits of natural nitre and the products of artificial nitrières, whilst additional supplies are available in the ammoniacal liquors of the gas-manufacturer, &c. The possible failure of the nitre deposits led to attempts to convert atmospheric nitrogen into manures by processes permitting economic success. Combination can be made in five directions, viz. to form (1) oxides and nitric acids, (2) ammonia, (3) readily decomposable nitrides, (4) cyanides, (5) cyanamides. The first three will be treated here; for the others see Prussic Acid and Cyanamide.
The combination of nitrogen with oxygen was first effected by Cavendish in 1785, who employed a spark discharge. The process was developed by Madame Lefebre in 1859; by Meissner in 1863, who found that moist gases gave a better result; and by Prim in 1882, who sparked the gases under pressure; it was also used by Lord Rayleigh in his isolation of argon (q.v.). It was not, however, a commercial success, and the same result attended Siemens and Halske’s application of the silent discharge. More effective was the electric arc. In 1892 Sir W. Crookes showed that the arc brought about combination; and in 1897 Lord Rayleigh went into the process more fully. But the first careful working-out of the conditions was made in 1900 by A. McDougall and F. Howles, who, employing a high tension alternating arc, showed that the effectiveness depended upon the temperature. The commercial manufacture of nitric acid was attempted by C. S. Bradley and D. R. Lovejoy at Niagara Falls, who passed atmospheric air, or air enriched with oxygen, about a high tension arc made as long as possible; but the company (the Atmospheric Products Company) was a failure. Better results have attended the process of K. Birkeland and S. Eyde, which is being worked on a large scale at Notodden, Norway. The arc is produced by leading a current of about 5000 volts equatorially between the poles of an electromagnet; this produces what is practically a disk of flame, 612 ft. in diameter and having a temperature of about 3000°. The disk really consists of a series of successive arcs which increase in size until they burst. The first product of the reaction is nitric oxide, which on cooling with the residual gases produces nitrogen peroxide. The cooled gases are then led into towers where they meet a stream of water coming in the contrary direction. Nitric acid (up to 59%) is formed in the first tower, and weaker acids in the successive ones; the last tower contains milk of lime which combines with the gases to form calcium nitrite and nitrate (this product, being unsuitable as a manure, is decomposed with the acid, and the evolved gases sent back). It was found advantageous not to work for acid but for a basic calcium nitrate (normal calcium nitrate being very deliquescent); for this purpose the acid is treated with the requisite amount of milk of lime. In the process of the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik, the arc, which is said to be 30 to 50 ft. long or more, is formed in a long tube, and the gases are sent round the arc by obliquely injecting them. A 30% acid is said to be formed. I. Moscicki and J. von Kowalski have patented a process wherein the arc is formed at two vertical
