Nitric Acid

General Information:

Structure:

CAS Number: 7697-37-2

Molecular Weight: 63.01 g/mol

Appearance: Colorless to light yellow liquid

Nitric acid is a very strong acid as well as a strong oxidizing agent. In organic synthesis it is commonly used in nitration reactions. Nitric acid solutions with greater than 86% strength are called fuming nitric acid. Fuming nitric acid literally gives off visible fumes when the bottles are opened.

Common Uses:

Reagent in nitration reactions

Procedure excerpt:

To a mixture of the SM (30.0 g, 159 mmol) and concentrated H2SO4 (100 mL) at about -5 C was added dropwise HNO3 (11.0 mL, 174 mmol) over 20 min. The reaction . . .

[full procedure]

Safety:

Nitric acid is a very strong acid.

References:

1) Patent Reference: WO2013134298, page 42, (4.1 MB)

2) Wikipedia: Nitric acid (link)

3) www.sigmaaldrich.com: Nitric acid (link)