Scandium(III) nitrate, Sc(NO₃)₃, is an ionic compound. It is an

oxidizer An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ). In other words, an oxid ...

, as all

nitrates Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the chemical formula . Salts containing this ion are called nitrates. Nitrates are common components of fertilizers and explosives. Almost all inorganic nitrates are soluble in water. An example of an insoluble ...

are. The salt is applied in optical coatings, catalysts, electronic ceramics and the laser industry.

Preparation

Scandium nitrate can be prepared by the reaction between

scandium Scandium is a chemical element with the symbol Sc and atomic number 21. It is a silvery-white metallic d-block element. Historically, it has been classified as a rare-earth element, together with yttrium and the Lanthanides. It was discovered in ...

metal with

dinitrogen tetroxide Dinitrogen tetroxide, commonly referred to as nitrogen tetroxide (NTO), and occasionally (usually among ex-USSR/Russia rocket engineers) as amyl, is the chemical compound N2O4. It is a useful reagent in chemical synthesis. It forms an equilibrium ...

. :Sc + 3 N₂O₄ → Sc(NO₃)₃ + 3 NO The

anhydrous A substance is anhydrous if it contains no water. Many processes in chemistry can be impeded by the presence of water; therefore, it is important that water-free reagents and techniques are used. In practice, however, it is very difficult to achie ...

form can also be obtained by the reaction between

scandium chloride Scandium(III) chloride is the inorganic compound with the formula ScCl3. It is a white, high-melting ionic compound, which is deliquescent and highly water-soluble. This salt is mainly of interest in the research laboratory. Both the anhydrous f ...

and

dinitrogen pentoxide Dinitrogen pentoxide is the chemical compound with the formula , also known as nitrogen pentoxide or nitric anhydride. It is one of the binary nitrogen oxides, a family of compounds that only contain nitrogen and oxygen. It exists as colourless ...

. The tetrahydrate can be obtained from the reaction between

scandium hydroxide Scandium(III) hydroxide is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula Sc(OH)3, the trivalent hydroxide of scandium. It is an amphoteric In chemistry, an amphoteric compound () is a molecule or ion that can react both as an acid and as a ...

and

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 ...

Properties

Scandium nitrate is a white solid which dissolves in water and

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 ...

. It has multiple hydrated forms, including the dihydrate, trihydrate, and tetrahydrate. The tri- and tetrahydrate exist in the

monoclinic crystal system In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic sy ...

. Upon heating in air to 50 °C, the tetrahydrate transforms into the dihydrate, which at 60 °C further converts to Sc₄O₃(NO₃)₃·6.5H₂O. At 140–220 °C, Sc₄O₅(NO₃)₃ is formed. Scandium nitrate has been found to form clusters when in an aqueous solution which can affect its behavior and properties in various ways. Small Angle neutron scattering has been used in experiments to show the clusters can contain as many as 10 scandium ions. This number depends on the concentration of the original scandium nitrate in the solution.

Applications

Scandium nitrate has been found to be a successful catalyst in chemical reactions such as Beckmann rearrangement of ketoximes to amides and the isomerization of allylic alcohols to aldehydes. The catalytic success of scandium nitrate can be increased by modifying its structure in ways such as adding a co catalyst. Scandium nitrate is also the precursor for the synthesis of other scandium based compounds such as scandium oxide or scandium hydroxide. Scandium nitrate has also been investigated for its potential in luminescent materials due to its ability to strongly emit in the blue region of the spectrum.

References

{{nitrates Scandium compounds Nitrates