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Separation of urea adducts in the analysis of complex mineral fertilisers

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Abstract

An investigation of the analytical separation of free urea from its additive compounds with H3PO4, HNO3, CaSO4 and Ca(H2PO4)2, based on the solubility in butan-1-ol (n-butanol, n-BuOH), is reported. Several methods were tested in order to obtain the best leaching efficiency and solvent utilisation. The urea content was determined using the spectrophotometric method. A simple qualitative determination of urea was also performed using a special type of urea indicator-paper developed during the study. The phase composition of the examined materials was studied using an X-ray powder diffraction method. The urea adducts with phosphoric and nitric acid were found to be soluble in n-BuOH, in a similar way as with free urea. However, the solubility of the urea adducts with CaSO4 and Ca(H2PO4)2 differs from the solubility of free urea, affording an effective separation of these compounds. The solubility of free urea under defined experimental conditions was estimated to be (1.432 ± 0.043) g of urea in 100 cm of n-BuOH. The trace solubilities of urea bound in the adducts CaSO4 · 4CO(NH2)2 and Ca(H2PO4)2 · 4CO(NH2)2 were (8.28 ± 0.61) mg and (29.83 ± 0.63) mg of urea in 100 cm of n-BuOH, respectively. Partial decomposition of Ca(H2PO4)2 to CaHPO4 was observed during the leaching process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemical and Environment Engineering, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Pułaskiego 10, 70-322, Szczecin, Poland

    Marcin Sadłowski, Barbara U. Grzmil, Krzysztof Lubkowski & Kinga Łuczka

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  1. Marcin Sadłowski
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  2. Barbara U. Grzmil
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  3. Krzysztof Lubkowski
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  4. Kinga Łuczka
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Correspondence to Marcin Sadłowski.

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Presented at the 41st International Conference of the Slovak Society of Chemical Engineering, Tatranské Matliare, Slovakia, 26–30 May 2014.

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Sadłowski, M., Grzmil, B.U., Lubkowski, K. et al. Separation of urea adducts in the analysis of complex mineral fertilisers. Chem. Pap. 70, 315–324 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1515/chempap-2015-0187

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