# Easy homemade 90-100% nitric acid



## tnitrato (Feb 17, 2014)

Hi people. 

I dont know if that was posted before, but there is a somewhat old video Ive made on nitric acid making, that can be useful. 
The method is simple and the only real difficulty can be in getting conc. H2SO4. 

The method simply uses a commom glass, a wine-cup glass type inside it and a HDPE sheet (with ice) above the larger glass container to resfriate and condensate the HNO3, that will drop inside the wine-glass cup. Since thermal conduction along the wine cup rod is poor, the collected nitric acid will suffer minimum re-evaporation. Use at least 3 sheets of HDPE (which is resistant to HNO3 at some degree), dont use lower quality plastics or it will eat away, throwing water/ice directly on hot sulfuric acid (this could be very nasty). In my experiments the same HDPE sheets can be re-used with safety at least 3 times, then discarded.

video: Link to video deleted because of the dangers, we are not dealing with pyrotechnics on the forum we are recovering and refining precious metals.
Butcher

Since I was using 98% grade acid and KNO3 (pre-dried first to eliminate residual water), there is almost no water in resulting HNO3, only dissolved NOx (that was eliminated after with a bit of urea and some dried air). 

The acid can the be dilluted and/or NOx removed if needed or used as this..

MOST IMPORTANT: *if planning doing this, do entirely under your responsability and make this under fume-hood or in an open space. You dont want to be killed by NOx gasses. *
The process is slow, dont try to heat more than 80°C to speed it up or your HNO3 vapour will starts to chiefly degradate into NOx and water, decreasing your HNO3 in the receiver glass.
Ive used a electric type heating for convenience and safety. Commom glass is not designed to be used with direct fire (which could break it, spilling nasty hot acid mix and fumes everywhere).


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## butcher (Feb 17, 2014)

tnitrato,

I really do not see any benefit of that process over the process we use to make nitric acid, we do not need concentrated concentrated nitric acid for recovery or refining.

I suggest if you wish to learn to make nitric acid for recovery or refining study the forum, although we do not discuss making fuming nitric acid and in fact discourage it here on the forum, it has no use in recovery and refining.


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## tnitrato (Feb 17, 2014)

butcher said:


> tnitrato,
> 
> I really do not see any benefit of that process over the process we use to make nitric acid, we do not need concentrated concentrated nitric acid for recovery or refining.
> 
> I suggest if you wish to learn to make nitric acid for recovery or refining study the forum, although we do not discuss making fuming nitric acid and in fact discourage it here on the forum, it has no use in recovery and refining.



Thanks for commenting butcher.

At the time I made the video I was studying more pyrotechnics (yes, Im a pyro enthusiast), so fuming nitric has its uses on pyro hobby, but nothing imply it couldnt be used by amateur scrappers in precious metals refining, its just a option.

I can buy 65% nitric acid with easy, but I always tried to make my own chemicals. Using homemade reagents are the double of the knowledge you can obtain (and also double of the fun).

I agree with you that there is no need to use fuming nitric acid, because this I cited that it could be dilluted after the process.

The main feature of the method, however, is the easy aquisition of glassware and operation, nothing more.. Some distillation kits and set-ups cost hundreds of dollars; the homemade glassware shown is almost free (although great caution should be taken to avoid any accident).


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## jeneje (Feb 17, 2014)

This thread should be deleted!! The danger it poses out ways any refining needs we would have. Concentrated HNO3 mixed with certain other chemicals can cause spontaneous combustion without warning.
Ken


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## tnitrato (Feb 17, 2014)

jeneje said:


> Concentrated HNO3 mixed with certain other chemicals can cause spontaneous combustion without warning.
> Ken



Hello Ken.

Everyone that will plan on using HNO3, concentrated or not, MUST know this. 
I read MSDS of every chemical substance I came across, even first of handling it. Nitric acid was no different.



> This thread should be deleted!! The danger it poses out ways any refining needs we would have.



I cited this, and said that this is only a option. BTW, the last option. Its much less work, cheaper, desired and much safer buying 65% stuff from chemical stores. Even poor man's AR would be safer to use (where chloride isnt a problem). But what you would do if you run out nitric acid, dont have proper glassware and for some reason cant buy your nitric acid? This is the only reason I posted this thread.

Sorry, Im not mean to be rude. If staff thinks this thread pose great dangers and/or was out of the rules, please dont hesitate in deleting it. 
Kind regards.


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## jeneje (Feb 17, 2014)

I understand what you were trying to do, This forum has members that will try to duplicate the video without understanding the consequences. RFNA is extremely dangerous under the best of conditions. At 84% is it used as a rocket propellant and the video showed making 90 to 100% pure HNO3. :shock: RFNA increases the flammability of combustible materials and is highly exothermic when reacting with water. I apologize for mentioning the dangers, but I have hands on experience with it-it is not to be played with.
Ken


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## sharkhook (Feb 17, 2014)

From jeneje:



> Never jump in blind, it's leads to stupidity!
> My mind works like lightning - One brilliant flash and it's GONE!!



Very apt in this case and to likely to be the results of messing with this stuff. In the short time I have been here, nitric has only been used by me to test materials with. Besides that, butcher posted an excellent reply in an older post that is a great way to make the type I needed for that. Lasersteve has another that will do great for refining as well. There is also many other related posts on the forum that is more likely to pertain to what this forum is about. I am all for sharing knowledge, but some people don't want to learn, they want to do "Do It Now". Often with sad results. Knowledge is only useful if you know how to apply it, and do so in a safe and cautious manner. Again, something most do not want to do, that old slogan of "Just Do It" leads to many down that dangerous path.


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## butcher (Feb 17, 2014)

tnitrato,

I know you were trying to be helpful, and I am sure after you have been here for a while you will be very helpful with your skills, I deleted your link because of its dangers and as I stated fuming nitric has no purpose here, we also do not wish to discuss, or promote pyrotechnics here on the forum, in fact with what we do we try to keep as far away as possible from making explosive mixtures in our labs.

I look forward to learning from you in the chemistry, and field of recovery and refining, and if I can help you with what I have been learning in this field, I will be glad to share it with you. welcome to the forum.


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## tnitrato (Feb 19, 2014)

Thank you all for the input. I got the point.
I just cited that Im a pyro enthusiast simply to show you why I made the procedure for fuming nitric, only that. I wont comment on that again, as cited there are specific foruns focusing on amateur pyro experiments and I dont want to break the GRF rules.

I received a private message asking for a better/safer way to get a less conc. acid using the method. 
I promise that when I go back to my home (about two weeks, I guess), I will find a better/safer way to get a less conc. acid to precious metals leaching experiments and will present here. 

Hope in next days gather some material to experiment with and extract some gold, while Im reading some threads.
Thank you GRF community.


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## sharkhook (Feb 22, 2014)

Looking forward to your posting on the less concentrated stuff. Good Luck finding your gold.


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