Occurrence of a Previously Unobserved Nitrogen Gas in the Reaction Product of Nitrous Acid and Lignin

Abstract

DURING investigations into the nature of gases produced by the reaction of nitrous acid with soil humic acids and lignins, a product was obtained from lignin which showed anomalous behaviour. There was a slow uptake of gas by permanganate solution beyond the time required for complete adsorption of nitric oxide (formed by self-degradation of nitrous acid during the reaction). For example, with the products obtained from humic acids, there was no further uptake of gas beyond a 10-min period of contact with permanganate; with the product obtained from lignins, some gas was still being adsorbed after an 8-h period. This result suggested that the gases from lignins contained a compound which was not present in the gases recovered from humic acids. To explore this possibility, infra-red analyses were made of the gaseous products obtained by reacting nitrous acid with humic acids, lignins and some lignin-building units.