First Batch Homemade Nitric Acid

[RicRock]

Hello,

After a month of reading and watching videos, I felt secure enough to attempt to produce some Nitric Acid.
Using LazerSteve's formula (Thanks for this).

I heated 272ml Distilled H2O and dissolved 462g of Sodium Nitrate in in.
Once it was below boiling, I added (in small increments) 152ml Sulfuric acid to the solution.

I'm allowing it to cool slowly and after 3 hours I have what you see in pics below.

Comments, tips, and tongue lashings welcome.

98% Sulfuric Acid:



Sodium Nitrate:



Process Pics:

 

[RicRock]

Pictures of salt left after first decanting:




Product in new container, I'll continue to let this sit outside (-5C) for a few more hours before I pour it into my amber bottle.





Pic of my Helper who never lets me do things by myself:

 

[butcher]

Nice helper

 

[kadriver]

I love to see pictures - these are great.

Please let us know how the nitric acid turns out.

I have always ordered mine and have never tried to make it myself.

One of these days I may not be able to get it like I can now.

Need to do this at least once to gain the knowledge.

Your puppy looks like he would be a good companion - cheers!

kadriver

 

[kadriver]

RicRock:

If you live in the USA then you can get concentrated sulfuric acid at Ace Hardware. It is called Rooto Drain Cleaner or Liquid Fire.

I believe that both are 98% concentrated sulfuric acid.

I do not know if it will work for making nitric because I have never done it.

But I think that there are others here on the forum who have used it to make their own nitric acid.

I use it all the time for experiments and for cleaning glassware.

It is much cheaper than the pure sulfuric from the chemical company - if it will work.

kadriver

 

[RicRock]

RicRock:

If you live in the USA then you can get concentrated sulfuric acid at Ace Hardware. It is called Rooto Drain Cleaner or Liquid Fire.

I believe that both are 98% concentrated sulfuric acid.

Thanks, I did see that posted. For my first batch I wanted to try to control all the variables I could, from duodiesel 950ml was $22.95 delivered which I believe is close to the price of Liquid Fire.

This batch produced 210 ml of what I would politely call laughable concentration.

I placed the 105g of sterling in a container and covered it with the 210ml of Nitric acid. I applied gentle heat and after 2 hours, I was left with half undissolved.

After filtered through a coffee filter, I was still left with a very cloudy blue solution:



BTW the volume shown is greater that 210ml obviously because of the capture of rinse water.

 

[mjgraham]

I have never made nitric acid this way and I may be wrong but I do not think that when you make nitric acid this way it is not suitable for working with silver. I think it has to be distilled to remove all the salts and other things.

 

[lazersteve]

Did you cool the nitric mixture to zero Celsius or below before decanting?

Steve

 

[RicRock]

Did you cool the nitric mixture to zero Celsius or below before decanting?

Steve

Left it overnight at around 0C

 

[RicRock]

I have never made nitric acid this way and I may be wrong but I do not think that when you make nitric acid this way it is not suitable for working with silver. I think it has to be distilled to remove all the salts and other things.

Thanks for you input. Seems I'll have to construct a distillation kit