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Transition Metals, Quantitative Chemistry and Industrial Processes

Fertilisers and ammonium salts

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

The nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that fertilisers supply and why they must be soluble compounds, what NPK means, making ammonium nitrate by neutralising ammonia with nitric acid, why it is an effective fertiliser, and crystallising it from solution.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Name the three elements that fertilisers supply to plants.

Key term

Why do fertilisers contain compounds rather than the elements themselves?

Key term

Explain why a fertiliser must be soluble in water.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Name the three elements that fertilisers supply to plants.

    Model answer

    Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

  2. 2

    Why do fertilisers contain compounds rather than the elements themselves?

    Model answer

    Plants take these elements in as soluble ions dissolved in the water in the soil.

  3. 3

    What is the purpose of spreading fertiliser on farmland?

    Model answer

    It replaces the elements removed by earlier crops so that plants grow faster and yields are larger.

  4. 4

    What do the letters NPK on a bag of fertiliser refer to?

    Model answer

    They refer to the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium that the fertiliser supplies.

  5. 5

    Which of the elements in a fertiliser does a plant need in order to make proteins?

    Model answer

    Nitrogen.

  6. 6

    Explain why a fertiliser must be soluble in water.

    Model answer

    Only ions that have dissolved in soil water can be taken up through the roots of the plant.

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