# Nitric Acid on Ebay - 1qt for $70



## kadriver (Oct 21, 2012)

Found this nitric acid on Ebay, 1 quart for $70 shipped:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nitric-Acid-67-reagent-ACS-grade-in-1-quart-glass-bottle-/110826856677?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19cdcba0e5

For someone looking to get started with a small quantity - especially living in a rural area.

When I bought my first liter of concentrated nitric acid I paid Over $100 for the acid and shipping.

It was not available on Ebay back in 2010 (as far as I can remember - might be wrong though).

I remember that I did not care about the cost - I just wanted to get started.

Now I get my nitric from GFS Chemical, six 2.5 liter bottles for $220 delivered (to my company address - no residential deliveries)

kadriver


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## zzz (Oct 22, 2012)

I make nitric from myself and i spent 2$ for 5 liters, concentration around 70% (is a little bit contaminated i need to say)
make your count...


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## ericrm (Oct 22, 2012)

how did you endup with making nitric acid a 2$/5l... i must have mis interpretted what you just worte, when i make mine i com to about 5/15$ litter depending on how cheap i manage to find my sulfuric acid and mina is also conatminated...


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## Geo (Oct 22, 2012)

i tried the calcium ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid distillation method and the nitric acid is very clean and near isotropic. i buy battery electrolyte at $26 per 5 gallons which gives me 5 quarts (5 L) of concentrate sulfuric and the nitrate was $22 for a 50# bag. i should be able to make double the weight of nitric acid as sulfuric acid which should be around 2 gallons of nitric for less than $50.


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## zzz (Oct 22, 2012)

No error, you read that right...


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## Geo (Oct 22, 2012)

zzz said:


> No error, you read that right...



then its best to leave it at that. if a process is recommended that the dangers of it is life threatening, its best not to put it on the forum.


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## rusty (Oct 22, 2012)

Geo said:


> i tried the calcium ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid distillation method and the nitric acid is very clean and near isotropic. i buy battery electrolyte at $26 per 5 gallons which gives me 5 quarts (5 L) of concentrate sulfuric and the nitrate was $22 for a 50# bag. i should be able to make double the weight of nitric acid as sulfuric acid which should be around 2 gallons of nitric for less than $50.



Geo try a few of the hydroponic or greenhouse chemical supply house's they sell 98% sulfuric acid in 20 liter container - $50.00. Might even be cheaper in the U.S.A..


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## etack (Oct 22, 2012)

rusty said:


> Geo said:
> 
> 
> > i tried the calcium ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid distillation method and the nitric acid is very clean and near isotropic. i buy battery electrolyte at $26 per 5 gallons which gives me 5 quarts (5 L) of concentrate sulfuric and the nitrate was $22 for a 50# bag. i should be able to make double the weight of nitric acid as sulfuric acid which should be around 2 gallons of nitric for less than $50.
> ...



Ask them about nitric too a lot of greenhouses use it as a PH balancer and it adds nitrates to the water.

Thats how I started getting mine though a friend that has lots of greenhouses. he now uses sulfuric acid do to the low sulfur content in his water at his farm to growing his greens.

Eric


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## mjgraham (Oct 22, 2012)

Geo said:


> i tried the calcium ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid distillation method and the nitric acid is very clean and near isotropic. i buy battery electrolyte at $26 per 5 gallons which gives me 5 quarts (5 L) of concentrate sulfuric and the nitrate was $22 for a 50# bag. i should be able to make double the weight of nitric acid as sulfuric acid which should be around 2 gallons of nitric for less than $50.


This is the method I was looking at, I wanted to ask you have a lab setup to make it or just some other equipment? I want to get some distillation equipment but you know how that goes, just curious.


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## Geo (Oct 22, 2012)

mjgraham said:


> Geo said:
> 
> 
> > i tried the calcium ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid distillation method and the nitric acid is very clean and near isotropic. i buy battery electrolyte at $26 per 5 gallons which gives me 5 quarts (5 L) of concentrate sulfuric and the nitrate was $22 for a 50# bag. i should be able to make double the weight of nitric acid as sulfuric acid which should be around 2 gallons of nitric for less than $50.
> ...



i made my own condenser using glass tubing used in neon signs and PVC as the water jacket. it works really well. i posted pictures of the condenser before but cant remember the post i put them in.


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## mjgraham (Oct 22, 2012)

I'll look back a little, sounds like I need to make a trip to the hobby shop..


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## Geo (Oct 22, 2012)

here you go.


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## mjgraham (Oct 22, 2012)

Well I can't complain about that, one more thing and I'll leave you be, what are you boiling it in? I thought to use my filter flask need to see if it will work for that kind of thing.


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## Geo (Oct 23, 2012)

ive been using 1 gallon wine bottles (the kind with the finger hole). the mixture needs to be at or a little above 255 degrees F. i use an electric skillet with a couple inches of sand. then i put aluminum foil from the skillet to the neck of the bottle to help keep the bottle hot. if the mixture stays warm and the bottle is exposed to the air, nitric acid will condense on the inside of the bottle. this will happen anyway, but if the bottle is hot, more acid will form in the condenser and less in the bottle.


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## mjgraham (Oct 23, 2012)

Interesting, have some of those, I'll let you know what I come up with, I have already basically copied your chip incinerator and it works pretty good.
Thanks for the info


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## zzz (Oct 25, 2012)

Geo said:


> zzz said:
> 
> 
> > No error, you read that right...
> ...



Is not the method I wrote long ago, is another and is fast, sure and without any risk of die. Maybe i'll post.


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## plumbers (Oct 26, 2012)

Is not the method I wrote long ago, is another and is fast, sure and without any risk of die. Maybe i'll post.

Please do post it, for $2 at about 70% i like to try to make it myself.


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## 924T (Oct 28, 2012)

zzz,

Yeah, I'd like to see it, too, just for the sake of comparison to the other methods.

Is 70% purity o.k. to use for doing a fire assay?

Cheers,

Mike


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## etack (Oct 28, 2012)

924T said:


> zzz,
> 
> Yeah, I'd like to see it, too, just for the sake of comparison to the other methods.
> 
> ...



Homemade nitric is not appropriate for doing assays. You add other variables into you assay and run the risk of making it meaningless.

70% analytical grade would be fine but you would still dilute it by 50% the reaction is less crazy. To do assays spend the money for good chemicals so the don't lead you wrong. 

I don't do assays and probably will never I don't have the proper lab skills(neatness) but I have read great post on this on the forum.

Eric


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## 924T (Nov 3, 2012)

etack,

Thanks for the reply------that does make sense, I hadn't looked at it from the point of view
of introducing variables, which would pretty much skew the results of a fire assay.

Cheers,

Mike


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## Geo (Nov 3, 2012)

i just now am finishing a small amount of nitric acid i condensed using calcium ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid. i am amazed at how efficient the reaction is. ive been using potassium nitrate. after the reaction is complete, the reagents are still a thick liquid which solidifies into an almost rock solid puck of potassium sulfate. with calcium nitrate, the reagents are virtually dry and still producing liquid nitric acid. there is no noticeable NO2 formed. the vapors formed resemble steam and condense into nitric acid. ive tested it with copper and got an immediate reaction. a couple of ml's totally dissolved a piece of copper almost a gram in weight.

i will make a video of my homemade distillation rig in operation. when i post it, keep in mind that i am well aware of the safety issues and there will be a couple of things i do that i would never advise anyone to do such as : heat chemicals without a catch pan. : heat chemicals in a regular bottle. : be in close proximity to this reaction while in process. i do have some lab grade equipment that i use when it becomes necessary but i dont bring it outside because things happen. the loss of some of it may stop me from processing.everything in the video i will use will be items that (besides the chemicals) cost a total of about $15. i just wanted to make sure the process was repeatable and was as efficient as it appeared to be.


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## mjgraham (Nov 3, 2012)

Well Geo I made a condenser like you posted, used a T5 florescent bulb about 1/2" in diameter worked good except maybe a little thin. Of course first thing I banged it into something and caused a small fracture in the end down to the epoxy. You right they work good, I just ran steam through it and with hardly any water flow it was ice cold dripping out of end. I had planned using the calcium ammonium nitrate and sulfuric acid method was a good video on youtube with all the math. Are you monitoring the temperature any, I know what it has to be but I didn't know if/how you were measuring it and how much are you making at a time.


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## Geo (Nov 3, 2012)

thats a bad crack. let that be the exhaust end the acid drips from. how will you hook it up to the reaction chamber? 

i use what ever large bottles i can find. with the calcium nitrate, the reagents are virtually dry after the water boils out. the liquid that gets converted to nitric acid is locked up in the nitrates molecule matrix. the problem i had with using potassium nitrate was the reagents was always a liquid. if the container failed, hot sulfuric acid would go everywhere and ruin my burner. with this formulation, the reagents are basically dry when it starts to make nitric acid. if the container fails, the worst i will have is a busted bottle.

i place the bottle directly on the burner coil. you MUST warm it slowly. gradually increase heat at about 15 minute increments. if you warm slowly, most any bottle can withstand the heating. its thermal shock that will make it fail. most 110v burners will barely reach the temperature needed, so if you use an electric burner, a catch pan is out of the question. you will, at the stage nitric acid is formed, need to put aluminum foil around the burner and bottle up to the "L". if you dont do this, the nitric acid will form on the cool exposed glass on the inside of the bottle and run down the side back into the reagents mix. the bottle must be hot all the way up so the steam will move into the condenser. i call it steam because thats what it looks like. theres no red vapors.

when the reaction is done. if you want to re-use your bottle, you must let it cool as slowly as it warmed. if you just turn off the heat, the thermal shock of cooling too fast will make it fail.

i just made 16 Fl. ounces of very strong (not sure of the concentration but at least 50/50) with about 8 Fl. ounces of sulfuric acid.


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## mjgraham (Nov 4, 2012)

Well as in normal fashion, I built the condenser then decided to look up how to work with glass tube. I basically sawed with a hacksaw blade the tube ends off, didn't know about flame polishing which might have saved the break on the end however after I got brave I made this. Not the best but not to bad for a first attempt, youTube makes you believe things don't require experience sometimes 




My only problem is I need to Teflon tape the rubber stopper quite well and it is only a 500ml flask but that will be a good start. My plan was to put the end with some Teflon tape into the condenser end and let it run but I found the angle I made in the tube puts the long condenser below my table top but I can raise everything up just working on the details.


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## jmdlcar (Jan 18, 2013)

Geo said:


> here you go.


The outside tube look like PVC the inside tube is it glass or plastic? And how long is it?


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## Geo (Jan 18, 2013)

mine is three feet including the bent neck.the tube in the middle is glass.


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