using weak nitric acid in aqua regia

[bigpagoda]

Hello all, I am new to this forum and looking forward to your help with my new hobby. I have a good supply of a weak nitric acid solution (sds sheet says 40-60%) that I am wondering if it can be used to refine a bunch of gold pins I recovered from some motherboards last week. I titrated 5ml of it with 1N sodium hydroxide and it does indeed come out at approximately 46% nitric acid by volume. So I am wondering if it is strong enough to use or will I just be causing myself more trouble than it is worth. I also have another similar solution that contains 1-3% phosphoric acid as well- will that cause unintended issues if I use it? Thanks

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Welcome to the forum. Your weak nitric should work just fine. Most of the time when we use just nitric, we dilute concentrated acid that is about 68 to 70% by about half with water, so your acid is still stronger than that. It will also work for making AR, though it will be just a little diluted.

I don't know if the phosphoric acid would cause you any problems.

Dave