Encyclopedia > Ostwald process

  Article Content

Ostwald process

The Ostwald process is a commercial process, invented by Wilhelm Ostwald, used to produce nitric acid. Ammonia is heated with a catalyst (platinum) to form nitric oxide that is then oxidized to yield nitrogen dioxide, which in turn reacts with water to yield nitric acid and nitric oxide:

2 NH3 + 4 O2 --> 2 NO + 3 H2O

2 NO + O2 --> NO2

2 NO2 + 1/2 O2 + H2O --> 2 HNO3(aq)



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Father Damien

... of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary[?] at Louvain, and was admitted to the religious profession on October 7, 1860. Three years later he was sent to ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 24.3 ms