Why are the nitrate salts hygroscopic? Any metal is never extracted from its nitrate salt because nitrate salts are highly soluble in water, so flow away along with rainwater, or any other source.
But why are the nitrate salts so hygroscopic in nature? Is there any relationship with hydrogen bonding? Or something else is the cause?
Anions like nitrate forms strong hydrogen bond with water. Here water bridges the nitrate oxygen with hydrogen bonds giving it a very stable arrangement.