Understanding Molten Nitrate Chemistry - The Role of Nitrite

摘要

Many reactions in molten nitrates can now be seen to involve nitrite anions as the reactive species, the latter being formed by the thermal decomposition equilibrium.rnThis review considers many reactions in the classes of acid-base, oxidation-reduction and coordination, largely those in lithium nitrate-potassium nitrate eutectic, and deduces that nitrite is the reactant in all classes, except coordination when nitrate is clearly the dominant ligand, and possibly also in reactions with strong Lux=Flood acids. New evidence from the reaction of chromium(III) chloride is particularly helpful in showing that this oxidation/basic reaction, nitrite rather than nitrate is the source of oxidation and of oxide anions.