Ethyl nitrate is the

ethyl Ethyl may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Cold Ethyl, a Swedish rock band *Ethyl Sinclair, a character in the ''Dinosaurs'' television show Science and technology * Ethyl group, an organic chemistry moiety * Ethyl alcohol (or ethanol) * E ...

ester In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an oxoacid (organic or inorganic) in which at least one hydroxyl group () is replaced by an alkoxy group (), as in the substitution reaction of a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. Glycerides ar ...

nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...

and has the

chemical formula In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, ...

. It is a colourless, volatile, explosive, and highly flammable liquid. It is used in

organic synthesis Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the intentional construction of organic compounds. Organic molecules are often more complex than inorganic compounds, and their synthesis has developed into one o ...

and as an intermediate in the preparation of some

drugs A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...

dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution an ...

s, and

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. Th ...

s. Ethyl nitrate is found in the atmosphere, where it can react with other gases to form smog. Originally thought to be a

pollutant A pollutant or novel entity is a substance or energy introduced into the environment that has undesired effects, or adversely affects the usefulness of a resource. These can be both naturally forming (i.e. minerals or extracted compounds like oi ...

, formed mainly by the

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combusti ...

fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...

, recent analysis of

ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wo ...

water samples reveal that in places where cool water rises from the deep, the water is

saturated Saturation, saturated, unsaturation or unsaturated may refer to: Chemistry * Saturation, a property of organic compounds referring to carbon-carbon bonds ** Saturated and unsaturated compounds **Degree of unsaturation ** Saturated fat or fatty ac ...

with alkyl nitrates, likely formed by natural processes.

Preparation

Ethyl nitrate has been prepared by bubbling gaseous

nitryl fluoride Nitryl fluoride, NO2F, is a colourless gas and strong oxidizing agent, which is used as a fluorinating agent and has been proposed as an oxidiser in rocket propellants (though never flown). It is a molecular species, not ionic, consistent with it ...

through

ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl ...

at −10 °C. The reaction was subsequently studied in detail. Ethyl nitrate can be prepared by nitrating ethanol with fuming nitric acid or a mixture of concentrated sulfuric and nitric acids. Further purifying by distillation carries a risk of explosion.{{Cite book, url=https://archive.org/details/theoreticalorgan00coherich, title=Theoretical organic chemistry, last=Cohen, first=Julius B. (Julius Berend), date=1920, publisher=London, Macmillan, others=University of California Libraries, pag
189
}

References

Ethyl esters Alkyl nitrates