My aqua regia isnt working

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Michael moren

New member
Joined
Feb 20, 2021
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So I mixed 600ml hydrochloric, to 200ml nitric. Then I added all my scrap pieces. Yet, it bubbled... but nothing else happened. I let it stand. for 16 hours. It has stripped nothing.... Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Michael moren said:
So I mixed 600ml hydrochloric, to 200ml nitric. Then I added all my scrap pieces. Yet, it bubbled... but nothing else happened. I let it stand. for 16 hours. It has stripped nothing.... Any help would be greatly appreciated.
That's wayyyy too much nitric you used in the beginning. Even if you needed that much nitric acid, to that ratio of HCL, it's a good thing you didn't have a spillover. Put enough nitric acid in to get a reaction going, then add more as the reaction stops or considerately slow down.

Also, if I'm reading your post correctly, that's not a good thing at all to do... adding metals to acids. You're suppose to add acids to the metals. I hope you're not saying you mixed acids together, and then put metals in that solution. If you did do that, don't do that again and consider yourself lucky. Never, ever put metals in acids to dissolve, you put the acids in the vessel with the metals. Just like you don't ever put water in the acids, but you put acids in the water.

At this point, I would put it on some heat, and from the amount of nitric acid you used already, I'm sure there will be a reaction, either in the form of bubbling, fuming, gassing/brown/red coloring in the beaker, or all of the above.

Even sitting for 16 hours and nothing happened doesn't mean the acids are used up, especially the nitric. Throw some heat on it.... LOW HEAT at first. Depending on the vessel size you used, you may have a spillover once heat is added. Just be ready and have a catch pan ready, or put the beaker inside of a corningware or something just in case of a overflow.

Also, what materials are you working with?

Lastly, of all the acids you may deal with, nitric acid (HNO3) is the exception to the rule when it comes to "How Much Nitric Acid To Use". Something may call for 600ml HCL and 200ml Nitric, it does not mean to put the whole 200ml nitric in all at once. It's assumed that you know what you're doing and assumes you know to add it in increments until you used that amount, if needed.

The reason you add nitric in increments is because you may not even need 200ml to do what you're doing. You may have only needed 125ml or so. That extra 75ml of nitric acid can be a nightmare if you don't know what you're doing, and it'll keep redissolving your gold and silver, copper, and I'm sure other metals.

scrapparts
 
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