butcher said:
One mole vinegar (acetic acid) CH3COOH plus one mole of salt (sodium metal chloride salt) NaCl gives a mixture of one mole of hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid) HCl and one mole of sodium acetate ...
The bits doing the work are the ions that occur when these things are dissolved in water, namely the Cl
-. and H
+.
Acetic is a relatively weak acid with a pKa of around 5. That means that it does not fully dissasociate into H
+ and an acetonium anion, when dissolved in water.
Because of this, chances are that you'd need more vinegar than calculated.
HCl has a pKa of < 0, meaning that it completely dissassociates into H
+ and Cl
- in water (making calculation of quantites required much easier).
How much it disassociates (pKa) is the technical definition of a 'strong' (pKa<0) and a 'weak' acid (pKa>0).
For example, Hydrofluoric acid is a 'weak' acid (pKa ~3) yet it dissolves almost everything, including glass.
Personally i've tried the salt & vinegar (then bleach) experiments. It works, but when compared to the strong mineral acids, it's pretty much inferior in terms of speed/effectiveness.