American Elements manufactures moderate to highly concentrated dissolved homogeneous solutions of Iron Nitrate in 55 gallon drums, smaller units and liquid totes. This material is commonly used in petrochemical cracking and automotive catalysts, water treatment, plating, textiles, research, optic, laser and crystal applications.
iron nitrate solution is prepared by dissolving elemental iron in nitric acid to form a mixture of ferrous nitrate and ferric nitrate. Cupric or at least one other metal nitrate can be incorporated in the resulting mixture in a predetermined ratio.
The iron nitrate solution is filtered and the particles of undissociated iron are precipitated. This process can be repeated for a number of cycles to form a stable Fe(II)/Fe(III) solution in a range of concentrations from about 20 weight percent (w%) to about 100 w%.
In a second step, the dissolved elemental iron is co-precipitated with at least one structural promoter selected from silica, magnesium, copper, aluminum and combinations of these materials. The ratio of the iron to the structural promoter can be from about 20 weight percent (w%) to 50 w% and can be adjusted by temperature or pH to achieve the desired metal content.
In embodiments, the nitrate reduction reaction is accomplished by an exergonic mechanism (see equations hereinabove) in which a large amount of hydrogen and hydroxide ions are consumed by metallic iron during denitrification. As these ions are produced, nitrite is reduced to ammonium ions. The ammonium ions are then further reduced to the final product, ammonia, by hydrogen and hydroxide.