[Fry]

I cant seem to figure this one out.. any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[madscientist]

Ones heavier than the other -----> look at the solubility of each compound in different solvents. Im pretty sure that NaOH is insoluble in water but NaNO3 is soluble. extract NaNO3 with water, it will be in the lower (heavier layer. you could then dry the extract with Calcium chloride (not sure if CaCl would react with NaNO3 though)

[Fry]

Ones heavier than the other -----> look at the solubility of each compound in different solvents. Im pretty sure that NaOH is insoluble in water but NaNO3 is soluble. extract NaNO3 with water, it will be in the lower (heavier layer. you could then dry the extract with Calcium chloride (not sure if CaCl would react with NaNO3 though)

Sodium hydroxide is insoluble in water? I dont think so... Are you suggesting to mix the NaNO3/NaOH in water and sort of decant off the top layer?

[madscientist]

sorry scrap that, most metal hydroxides are insoluble in water, the ones that are soluble are those that contain a group 1A cation (i.e Na+)

[kiwi]

an involved but plausible method would be to dissolve up in water, add a suitable solid-phase acid (eg. Nafion-H), filter, and pH the filtrate back to 7 with sodium hydroxide. Remove the water (distillation or sublimation) and hey presto, you have pure NaNO3.