Nitric acid fuming nitric acid at concentrations above 86%. Nitric acid is the primary reagent used for nitration – the addition of a nitro group, typically to an organic molecule. While some resulting nitro compounds are shock- and thermally-sensitive explosives, a few are stable enough to be used in munitions and demolition, while others are still more stable and used as pigments in inks and dyes. Nitric acid is also commonly used as a strong oxidizing agent. Commercially available nitric acid is an azeotrope with water at a concentration of 68% HNO, which is the ordinary concentrated nitric acid of commerce. This
Chromotropic acid Chromotropic acid Chromotropic acid has the formula is (HO)CH(SOH). It can be used for as a reagent in the quantitative determination of the systemic herbicide, 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. Chromotropic acid is also used for testing of presence of formaldehyde. The usefulness of this reagent in quantitative determination is the formation of a red colouration (peaking at 580 nm wavelength) when chromotropic acid in 50% sulfuric acid reacts with formaldehyde. The colouration is specific to this aldehyde and is not produced from other organic species such as ketones and carboxylic acids. The NIOSH Formaldehyde method #3500 is the reference analytical standard that