Sodium nitrate

Sodium nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula . This alkali metal nitrate salt is also known as Chile saltpeter large deposits of which were historically mined in Chile to distinguish it from ordinary saltpeter, potassium nitrate. The mineral name is also known as nitratine, nitratite or soda niter.

Sodium nitrate is a white deliquescent solid very soluble in water. it is a readily usable source of the nitrate anion NO₃^{−, which is useful in several reactions carried out on industrial scales for the production of fertilizers, pyrotechnics, smoke bombs and other explosives, glass & pottery enamels, food preservatives esp. meats, and solid rocket propellant. It has been mined extensively for these purposes.}

History

The number one shipment of saltpeter to Europe arrived in England from Peru in 1820 or 1825, adjustment after that country's independence from Spain, but did not find all buyers and was dumped at sea in lines to avoid customs toll. With time, however, the mining of South American saltpeter became a profitable business in 1859, England alone consumed 47,000 metric tons. Chile fought the War of the Pacific 1879–1884 against the allies Peru and Bolivia and took over their richest deposits of saltpeter. In 1919, Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff determined its crystal positioning using X-ray crystallography.