Nitric Acid on Ebay - 1qt for $70

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.

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.

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.

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.