video Make Nitric acid - The Complete Guide
We show 3 ways to make nitric acid based on two different chemical approaches both of which can be done using easily accessible materials.
Warning: The procedures in this video produce large quantities of toxic gases and deal with highly corrosive acids. All work must be performed in a fume hood with proper safety equipment. And all apparatus must be glass to withstand the acids.
Chemically, nitric acid is made by bubbling nitrogen dioxide into water. So the objective in this approach is to generate nitrogen dioxide. This can be done by reacting hydrochloric acid, a nitrate salt and copper. Around 80grams of sodium nitrate, over 30 grams of copper and 100mL of hydrochloric acid are the quantities needed. The exact amount is not critical. For useable concentrations, the amount of water being converted should be small, around 20-50mL.
Any source of nitrate is usable including potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and even nitrate-based fertilizers. You can use our previous video on testing for nitrates if you want to determine if yours can be used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5M3rUqaEYs
The tricky part now is leading the gas into water. Two approaches are shown in the video. In the first approach three containers, such as jars are place inside each other to force the gas to go into the water. This is very inefficient but is very simple to do.
The better approach is to lead the gas out of the generator through a tube and into a chilled container of water.
The water that is converted into nitric acid can be replaced with hydrogen peroxide for better yield.
The chemical waste that is generated contains the valuable copper used before and recovering it is worthwhile due to todays high copper prices. This is simply done by putting in enough aluminum metal that it reacts with all the acids and copper in solution to create a slurry of copper. This can be filtered to obtain a residue of copper. it is highly contaminated but can still be used to make more nitric acid.
Finally, the last way of making pure nitric acid is to react concentrated sulfuric acid and a pure nitrate salt (NOT fertilizer) and heat it in a glass distillation apparatus to distill over the pure nitric acid. Stochiometric quantities of both reagents are recommended for maximum yield.
We get our glassware from chemglass or VWR
If you like our video, please check our others at http://www.youtube.com/nurdrage
Warning: The procedures in this video produce large quantities of toxic gases and deal with highly corrosive acids. All work must be performed in a fume hood with proper safety equipment. And all apparatus must be glass to withstand the acids.
Chemically, nitric acid is made by bubbling nitrogen dioxide into water. So the objective in this approach is to generate nitrogen dioxide. This can be done by reacting hydrochloric acid, a nitrate salt and copper. Around 80grams of sodium nitrate, over 30 grams of copper and 100mL of hydrochloric acid are the quantities needed. The exact amount is not critical. For useable concentrations, the amount of water being converted should be small, around 20-50mL.
Any source of nitrate is usable including potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and even nitrate-based fertilizers. You can use our previous video on testing for nitrates if you want to determine if yours can be used. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5M3rUqaEYs
The tricky part now is leading the gas into water. Two approaches are shown in the video. In the first approach three containers, such as jars are place inside each other to force the gas to go into the water. This is very inefficient but is very simple to do.
The better approach is to lead the gas out of the generator through a tube and into a chilled container of water.
The water that is converted into nitric acid can be replaced with hydrogen peroxide for better yield.
The chemical waste that is generated contains the valuable copper used before and recovering it is worthwhile due to todays high copper prices. This is simply done by putting in enough aluminum metal that it reacts with all the acids and copper in solution to create a slurry of copper. This can be filtered to obtain a residue of copper. it is highly contaminated but can still be used to make more nitric acid.
Finally, the last way of making pure nitric acid is to react concentrated sulfuric acid and a pure nitrate salt (NOT fertilizer) and heat it in a glass distillation apparatus to distill over the pure nitric acid. Stochiometric quantities of both reagents are recommended for maximum yield.
We get our glassware from chemglass or VWR
If you like our video, please check our others at http://www.youtube.com/nurdrage
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regards: Victoria
There is also a very interesting "The Los Alamos Technical Reports Collection" section.
~Bob~
As for the energetic materials, i tend to stay away from that since i want to show the public the other 99% of chemistry that doesn't involve explosives :)
1, if if nitric acid is the only one strong enough to dissolve copper, what does ferric chloride do to PCBs?
2 can you kill two birds with one stone andetch a PCB in the hydrochloric/nitrate
2. if your objective is to etch PCBs then go for it. Although not all applications requiring nitric acid can be replaced this way.
I have been interested in this type of chemistry for a long time.
Nitric acid is used in the mining industry and in machine shop processes.
I have had a few uses in the past for this acid in both of these industries, but did not have this knowledge or an easy way to obtain it then.
Rest assured, I will use this responsibly and safely.
Keep up the great work ;-)
L
http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch08/final/c08s08.pdf
Honestly I think Lemonie is missing the point here. The approach NurdRage is demonstrating is a very useful reaction for an amateur chemist. I did want to note however that you can get platinum off ebay which is extremely pure. Now rhodium is another matter, but if you have the platinum you can do it.
Electrical arcing.... It does work but its inefficient and contaminated. If I am not mistaken there is some ammonia produced by the arcing method. Free radicals also tend to react and make more complicated products. (They say this is how the building blocks of life were made.)
L
L