News tagged with nitrate
A genetic alternative to fertilizer
Several studies have shown that a lack of nitrogen in soils adversely affects crop yields. The modern use of nitrogen fertilizers has improved yields to meet expanding global food demand, but in some cases ...
Jun 01, 2012 |
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From decade to decade: What's the status of our groundwater quality?
There was no change in concentrations of chloride, dissolved solids, or nitrate in groundwater for more than 50 percent of well networks sampled in a new analysis by the USGS that compared samples from 1988-2000 to samples ...
Apr 30, 2012 |
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Nitrate in drinking water poses health risks for rural Californians
One in 10 people living in California's most productive agricultural areas is at risk for harmful levels of nitrate contamination in their drinking water, according to a report released today by the University of California, ...
Mar 13, 2012 |
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Metamaterials may advance with new femtosecond laser technique
Researchers in applied physics have cleared an important hurdle in the development of advanced materials, called metamaterials, that bend light in unusual ways.
Mar 08, 2012 |
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Prairie restoration also helps restore water quality
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists are studying the overall improvement in water quality when native prairie vegetation is restored to fields once cropped with corn and soybeans. Agricultural ...
Mar 08, 2012 |
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In forests, past disturbances obscure warming impacts
Past disturbances, such as logging, can obscure the effects of climate change on forest ecosystems. So reports a study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper, explor ...
Mar 05, 2012 |
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Study: Forested riparian zones important to nitrogen control, stream health
Human activities from agriculture to fossil fuel consumption have resulted in high levels of nitrates in many streams and rivers; now a new study suggests that nurturing riparian zone forests may be a key in maintaining healthy ...
Feb 21, 2012 |
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Wood chips help curb nitrate leaching
(PhysOrg.com) -- Wood chips can significantly stem nitrate flow from crop fields into the surrounding watershed, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) study.
Feb 20, 2012 |
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New study sheds light on evolutionary origin of oxygen-based cellular respiration
Researchers at the RIKEN SPring-8 Center in Harima, Japan, have clarified the crystal structure of quinol dependent nitric oxide reductase (qNOR), a bacterial enzyme that offers clues on the origins of our ...
Jan 22, 2012 |
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New climate-cooling molecule found
Scientists have succeeded in detecting and analyzing a new atmospheric molecule whose existence has long been suspected but never proved.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 16, 2012 |
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A dance of aerosols: Study shows plant-sourced particles pick and choose their partners
(PhysOrg.com) -- In the complex molecular mixer that is the atmosphere, some molecules dance with others and some are wallflowers, according to scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Using a ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 20, 2011 |
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What are the prospects for sustaining high-quality groundwater?
Intensive agriculture practices developed during the past century have helped improve food security for many people but have also added to nitrate pollution in surface and groundwaters. New research has looked at water quality ...
Dec 19, 2011 |
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Graphene's 'Big Mac' creates next generation of chips
The world's thinnest, strongest and most conductive material, discovered in 2004 at the University of Manchester by Professor Andre Geim and Professor Kostya Novoselov, has the potential to revolutionize material ...
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 09, 2011 |
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Nitrate levels rising in northwestern Pacific ocean: study
Changes in the ratio of nitrate to phosphorus in the oceans off the coasts of Korea and Japan caused by atmospheric and riverine pollutants may influence the makeup of marine plants and influence marine ecology, according ...
Sep 22, 2011 |
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Nitrogen in the soil cleans the air
Eutrophication harms the environment in many ways. Unexpectedly, nitrogen fertilizer may also be positive for the environment. And even acidic soils, promoting the destruction of forests, can have a positive ...
Aug 19, 2011 |
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Nitrate
The nitrate ion is a polyatomic ion with the molecular formula NO− 3 and a molecular mass of 62.0049 g/mol. It is the conjugate base of nitric acid, consisting of one central nitrogen atom surrounded by three identically-bonded oxygen atoms in a trigonal planar arrangement. The nitrate ion carries a formal charge of -1. This results from a combination formal charge in which each of the three oxygens carries a −2⁄3 charge, whereas the nitrogen carries a +1 charge, all these adding up to formal charge of the polyatomic nitrate ion.
This arrangement is commonly used as an example of resonance. Like the isoelectronic carbonate ion, the nitrate ion can be represented by resonance structures:
Almost all inorganic nitrate salts are soluble in water at standard temperature and pressure. A common example of an inorganic nitrate salt is potassium nitrate (saltpetre).
In organic chemistry a nitrate (not to be confused with nitro) is a functional group with general chemical formula RONO2 where R stands for any organic residue. They are the esters of nitric acid and alcohols formed by nitroxylation. Examples are methyl nitrate formed by reaction of methanol and nitric acid, the nitrate of tartaric acid, and the inaccurately-named nitroglycerin (which is actually an organic nitrate compound, not a nitro compound).
Like organic nitro compounds (see below) both organic and inorganic nitrates can be used as propellants and explosives. An example of the use of inorganic nitrate was classical gunpowder. In all these uses the thermal decomposition of the nitrate yields molecular nitrogen N2 gas plus considerable chemical energy, due to the high strength of the bond in molecular nitrogen. Especially in inorganic nitrate reactions, oxidation from the nitrate oxygens is also an important energy-releasing process.
For more information about Nitrate, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
