Nitric stuck in vacume

[Mr_Edd2nd]

ok the baker is back with another problem i was having a crack at making some nitric acid and got called away so i quickly shut everything down and in my haste i placed a glass stopper on a 50 mm pear flask filled with potassium nitrate and sulphuric acid after being boiled and buggered off.When i came back after a couple of hours the damn stopper wont come off So i am assuming the stopper is stuck under a vacume with some rather loovely looking nitric acid? But i am having trouble accessing it and afraid that once vacume is broken ???? Who knows? Thought about reheating it a little at a time and trying to remove stopper? Any thoughts here peoples? OK i can hear yas already so be nice as i already feel like it ok lol oh an if ya want more info just ask and umm i aint as think as you dumb i am
thanks in advance edd

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Warm your container up slowly and see if the pressure will equalize and allow the stopper to come out. Make shure it is in a container so if the flask break you don't loose your nitric.

 

[goldsilverpro]

I assume it is a vol flask. Don't heat it directly! I would heat it slowly in a water bath. Wear protective gear - face mask, etc. As you heat it, you can try holding a piece of ice on the stopper.

 

[shyknee]

Drill the stopper to equalize pressure.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Drill the stopper to equalize pressure.

It is a glass stopper. The vacume has possibly wedged the stopper in.

 

[shyknee]

Ooops. missed that .thank for the correction ..

 

[Harold_V]

On an occasion or two I had something similar happen. I heated the neck with hot water (holding it under the tap) until expansion of the glass and the absorbed heat popped out the stopper. It's important to not heat the stopper, otherwise you lose the advantage of expanding the glass, such as it is.

For me, when it happened, it did so with gusto. I'd suggest face protection and rubber gloves----and a method to catch the stopper if it propels itself as mine did.
No guarantee it will work, but you can't horse a glass stopper otherwise.

Harold

 

[Oz]

Actually the idea of drilling the stopper to relieve a vacuum is still a good idea (in my opinion) even if the stopper is made of glass. It is not hard to drill glass with the proper bit and stoppers are cheaper than flasks. It also eliminates the potentially explosive results you may get with other options. Once drilled, you can still use Harold's method or another to create a temperature difference between the stopper and flask if it is still mechanically bound.