Nitrate test to 2.5 micrograms and a concentration of 1 in 25,000 parts. Devarda's alloy (Copper/Aluminium/Zinc) is a reducing agent. When reacted with nitrate in sodium hydroxide solution, ammonia is liberated. The ammonia formed may be detected by its characteristic odor, and by damp red litmus paper's turning blue, signalling that it is an alkali — very few gases other than ammonia evolved from wet chemistry are alkaline. Aluminium is the reducing agent in this reaction that will occur. Diphenylamine may be used as a wet chemical test for the presence of the nitrate ion. In this test, a solution of diphenylamine
Alkalinity zero level species (CO), thus it increases alkalinity by two per mole of CO. [H] and [HSO] decrease alkalinity, as they act as sources of protons. They are often represented collectively as [H]. Alkalinity is typically reported as mg/L "as" CaCO. (The conjunction "as" is appropriate in this case because the alkalinity results from a mixture of ions but is reported "as if" all of this is due to CaCO.) This can be converted into milliEquivalents per Liter (mEq/L) by dividing by 50 (the approximate MW of CaCO/2). The following equations demonstrate the relative contributions of each component to the