NITRATE

any member of either of two classes of compounds derived from nitric acid. The salts of nitric acid are ionic compounds containing the nitrate ion, NO-3, and a positive ion, such as NH+4 in ammonium nitrate. Esters of nitric acid are covalent compounds having the structure R-O-NO2, in which R represents an organic combining group, such as ethyl (C2H5) in ethyl nitrate. See also nitro compound.