Australia's Science Forum

Hi Everyone,

One of my teachers has asked me for Ammonium Nitrate for the Endothermic Prac. Unfortunately we have ran out and obviously can't buy it anymore.
What can she "use" instead to show the kids the same reaction.

(I did do a search on Chemtalk but couldn't find much that helped).

Thanks everyone.

Susie

Here's one we do and I know we have others....I'll keep looking.
Cheers

http://www.middleschoolchemistry.com/le ... r5/lesson9

A simple one is citric acid and bicarb. Form a slurry of one and mix in the other! The more the merrier, but it works in small quantities.

I just found the thread with this one it's the Ammonium Nitrate NO NO one. I thought you could still buy it in small quantities.

From what I understand, you are still permitted to buy ammonium nitrate in small quantities, but the problem comes from the suppliers. Somewhere up the supply chain, someone will have to store larger quantities of the chemical, with all the required restrictions. I'm not sure what these are, but are difficult to work with. Hence, the lack of supply. This is what I got told when I worked in the nursery industry - ammonium nitrate used to be a common component of fertilisers. They now just use substitutes.

Here is one we did last year as a demo using ammonium thiocyanate. Works really well.
And another using urea, the link to the procedure is there on the order.