Re: What are the products when Sodium Nitrate is decomposed by heat?

Hmmm... I am not sure where your understanding is coming from ...

According to my sources, sodium nitrate does decompose upon heating but it
gives sodium nitrite and oxygen (2NaNO3 --> 2NaNO2 + O2) at around 500C 
and sodium oxide, nitrogen, and oxygen (2NaNO3 --> Na2O + N2 + 5/2 O2) at 
800C. I can find no reference to the straight thermal decomposition to 
yield nitric oxide. Sodium nitrite (NaNO2) can be used to form nitric oxide 
but requires some additional compound such as sulphuric acid with the 
resulting sodium compound being sodium sulphate.

Sorry if this doesn't help. If you would like to follow this up, I would 
be more than willing to try and answer your question. As posed, my only 
guess would be the formation of sodium superoxide but I can not find 
anything to substantiate this.