How to make Potassium Nitrate/Ammonia Hydroxide

Now i love in Australia where i is really hard to buy potassium hydroxide over the counter but being reasonably cheap and for anyone to buy, I recently found some pH Up from my local hardware store, now its not alot but i picked up around 100 grams for $8.00 so i brought it. For this production of Potassium nitrate you will need 56 grams for this reaction. Because i got a bottle, it is in a solution. The hydroxide is in a 250ml bottle so is i need 140mls of solution to equal the 56 grams needed. You will also need to get your hands on some Ammonium Nitrate, this may be hard for some people to obtain depending where you are located, it is normally found as cold packs, but can also be found as a fertilizer. So weigh out 80 grams of Ammonium nitrate and 56 grams of Potassium Hydroxide, Dissolve the Ammonium Nitrate in about 250mls of water, and then dissolve the hydroxide minimal water. Now poor the hydroxide into the nitrate, it will vigorously react to form ammonia gas which is toxic and should be done out side or in a fume hood.

KOH + NH₄NO₃ = KNO₃ + NH₄OH
                        Or
KOH + NH₄NO₃ = KNO₃ + H₂O + NH₃


Once all the hydroxide is added you can then boil down the solution, it will continue releasing ammonia gas as the ammonia hydroxide decomposes.

NH₄OH = NH₃ + H₂O

Once no more ammonia is released you can let the solution evaporate for a pure product or just boil down... too test it, mix equal amounts of Potassium Nitrate and Sugar and ignite the mixture, it should burn with a brilliant purple flame

5 C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + 48 KNO₃ = 60 CO₃ + 55 H₂O + 24 N₂ + 24 K₂O

(***) To minimize the toxic smell ammonia gas we can easly dissolve it into water to form Ammonia Hydroxide, this can be done by doing the reaction in a gas generator. So get a a Vacuum flask and attach a hose at the end of the flask, at the other end of the hose grab a beaker and put about 50-100mls of water, this is to collect the ammonia. Now you will have to do it pretty fast but place the dry chemical int he flask and then add about 100mls of water (adding less water will cause it to heat up a lot faster and may spit a bit too much, so more water the chemicals will react under water causing less splashing) once the water is in put a cork in, the reaction will again produce a lot of ammonia which will be pushed in to the hose, out the other end into the water forming ammonia hydroxide. you can test that ammonia hydroxide is formed by getting another beaker with HCl in and put it next to it, White fumes should appear as Ammonia Chloride is produced. (***)

NH₃ + H₂O = NH₄OH
NH₄OH + HCl = NH₄Cl + H₂O

Ammonia Hydroxide can be used in many experiments for making Complex salts or as a solvent.