Make Nitric Acid by Thermal Decomposition of Copper Nitrate

[@OrbitalRose_01]

taking precautions to avoid accidentally making explosives? yep sounds like nitrogen chemsitry lol

[@NurdRage]

I'll be honest, this was a terrible TERRIBLE way to make nitric acid because filtering calcium sulfate is painfully slow. Do this once and you'll never want to do it again for the rest of your life.

[@99Chemicals]

Wonder if the cheesecloth method would work at all here. Take your filter paper full of slurry, kinda ball it and twist the filter paper at the top, then wrap that in cheesecloth and use a weight to press out the water. Alternatively use your hands to squeeze it but that's much more likely to burst the filter paper.

[@highlander723]

HOLY SHIT YOUR ALIVE!!!

[@Marwie94]

@Horizon585 That only applies to red / white fuming nitric acid. Not azeotropic 68% nitric acid

[@custos3249]

Heeeey, you ran with my comment/question from like 4 years ago! Definitely not the direction I thought it'd go, but still cool to see.

[@Bluejay0181]

From someone who is poor and loves chemistry, I am willing to spend more time making chemicals in order to save money. I love this video.

[@PbChemist]

I knew there was a good reason to save that copper nitrate solution from purifying sterling silver scrap.... Thanks NurdRage!

[@Enjoymentboy]

I was literally thinking the exact same thing while watching this video. Currently I convert mine to KNO3 by adding KCL but this video still gets the mind working on new ways to look at things.

[@bormisha]

Are you also watching Sreetips?

[@CrimFerret]

@@bormisha I'm sure he could do it, but his copper solution often has other things dissolved in it and he uses so much extra water that I doubt it would be worth the time by the time he evaporated most of the excess off.

[@lazersteve]

I'm glad NR finally tried this one! I posted a comment not long ago about this process on Nile Reds channel (or maybe here, can't recall). I have been recycling my Copper sulfate/nitrate solutions this way for many years in my refining work. A more interesting aspect to me of the usefulness of copper nitrate is when it is used directly in refining of copper based scrap while producing the nitric acid in situ as opposed to separating out the nitric as shown here. For us refiners there is really no reason to actually distill out nitric acid as it will continually be reused as it is converted from sulfate to nitrate ad infinitum during the daily refining processing merely by adding copper nitrate and sulfuric acid to the reaction bucket. The refiner ends up with a continuous cycle process that dissolves the copper base metal and leaves behind the gold foils we all know and love. I have found that the normal day to night temperature swings are enough to crystallize out the copper sulfate needed. These crystals are harvested daily in the AM and converted as shown here to fresh copper nitrate. As a side note I find the blue color of the copper nitrate to be a great end point indicator when rinsing the calcium sulfate in the copper nitrate regeneration step. There is another method NR has not shown on video which is useful for silver cells: conversion of the copper nitrate in solution to nitric acid via electricity. I wrote about this method years ago on GRF for all those reading that are in the refining world. Great video NR! You rock! Steve

[@DiverCTH]

Did Mrs. Sreetips get onto you about hoarding reagents again? XD

[@aetius31]

A quick tip to remove calcium sulfate from glass frits: Just rince it with an ammonium carbonate solution and then rince again with dilute HCl. The CaSO4 is converted to amorphous calcium carbonate (that doesnt stick) by double displacement and the HCl convert it to soluble CaCl2

[@thenuke4195]

Not worth it

[@deadbzeus]

I remember watching your videos many years ago and loving them, I just started chemistry in college and you are one of the main inspirations for me. Thank you for all of your great content and hard work over the years.

[@joshmyer9]

Copious amounts, or cuprous amounts?

[@user-py9cy1sy9u]

Stop

[@chaos-ivy]

Continue

[@tinobassi59]

Do you like to go to the amusement park and ride the ferrous wheel as well?

[@5roundsrapid263]

I prefer tin salts, I’m a total stan.

[@tinobassi59]

@@5roundsrapid263 Did you know that Stannous Chloride is the one true salt of Westeros?

[@jamesg1367]

Copper nitrate can be produced by electrolytic methods, directly from a copper anode and a nitrate salt, with the help of a clay-pot membrane. It's slow but not difficult. Given copper nitrate from that source, which incidentally is much more pure, perhaps this decomposition method could be regarded more favorably. Thanks for another great video that adds nicely to the marketplace of "chem" ideas and techniques!

[@FromGregg]

You should’ve mentioned that copper nitrate is the largest waste product produced from refining silver! I’ve got a few gallons of the stuff that I’m currently using as electrolyte to make copper crystals via electrolysis. It does look like a royal pain though but at least I know I can downsize and concentrate my copper nitrate volume by removing the water. Thanks for the tips!

[@kennedy67951]

I Appreciate your shearing your Knowledge with all that want to Know things they don't. Like Myself. I like what your doing. I've been interested in Chemistry for almost all my long Life but just couldn't Afford Schooling. Your work give me a Brief look at how things work and Processes Involved in Our everyday Life. Thanks Mate for your time in the Production of these fine Mini Doc's. I do hope you can, and will continue this fine Art.

[@captainmidnite93]

Thank you. I get the copper nitrate left over after cementing out silver. Since I have to make the nitric acid myself for the refining process I can get some back from what I considered a waste product!

[@lucazsy]

"Personally, I vow to never do this again for the rest of my life" . I am gonna make this my doctoral dissertation epigraph. Thank you.

[@Artemis-zl5cs]

props to whoever put proper subtitles on the video!

[@cjprestidge1773]

Incredibly helpful explorations, but that particular shade of blue in the copper nitrate solution is unique and mesmerizing!

[@thegenerichotdog3575]

I know nothing about chemistry yet binge all your videos. Keep it up! Subscribed:)

[@drmarine1771]

Best chanel, I get excited when i get notification from Nurdrage.

[@CzarownicaMarta]

Did someone say "toxic"? All four thumbs up.

[@CzarownicaMarta]

@@cvspvr Best lucky charm to carry around with you at all times :)

[@CzarownicaMarta]

@@cvspvr !!! so you were serious about that one thumb? Man, be carefull.

[@CzarownicaMarta]

@@cvspvr Good. Girls like fingers. Don't lose any. I'd love to make explosives but garage chemistry is scarry lol.

[@CzarownicaMarta]

@@cvspvr A pharmacist huh? With that amount of fingers you should be a pianist. I will not experiment with chemistry without proper equipment, knowing my luck I would make a bomb just by boiling salty water.

[@jtbmetaldesigns]

Take a shot every time he says nitric acid or copper nitrate

[@Brandon-sc1fz]

I will never do any of this stuff on my own. I know little to nothing about what is going on. But I still watch. The unknown is still fascinating.

[@NiceleyDone]

Yassss!!! Back In Business!! excellent vid flow, definitely curious on the high yield. totally reasonable not wanting to repeat the process.

[@asstronix6657]

Omg you still alive 🙏🙏🙏 these is a wonderfull day! Didn't see the video but liked it and also a good video 😀😅😁🙏🙏🙏

[@beanlets]

Stop with the excessive emojis

[@genericalfishtycoon3853]

@@beanlets That would require OP to become sentient/self aware. I don't think it's going to happen.

[@genericalfishtycoon3853]

If he reads too many cancerous comments like this one he won't be for long. Stop trying to give NurdRage brain aids.

[@svenp6504]

This could be useful with small scale precious metal refining... Copper nitrate (mixed with nickel, tin, etc) is a common waste product, this looks to be a straightforward way to recover a decent amount of the expensive nitric acid.

[@Alondro77]

Add a little HCl to the nitrate waste and then plop in a cleaned piece of iron. All the copper will reduce out. You'll need to fiddle with the amount of HCl to add, but that's not really difficult. Just add a little at a time until the copper starts to form on the iron, which is pretty obvious! Then you have mostly iron nitrate, a yellow-green solution, which decomposes at a low temp (only 80C). It's much easier to produce NO2 that way, and you get the copper back quickly. In fact, the iron nitrate solution can decompose directly into iron oxide and nitric acid, under the proper conditions, meaning you just need to collect the acid vapor in your distillation apparatus!

[@moekatoekTV]

Damn. Send me your rusted equipment, ill refinish and bring them back to life then mail em back to you. I just cant handle seeing them like this all the time. Breaks my heart dude!

[@viktorgames2737]

Last time I was this early, this channel had around 1000 subs. :O

[@aga5897]

Superb Applied Chemistry ! You would certainly have been the winner of the 2015 Druken aga Nitric Acid Challenge !

[@NurdRage]

I thought that challenge required that no nitrates at all are used

[@aga5897]

​@@NurdRage The ONLY ideas that came out were alternative routes to a nitrate and/or sulphuric acid. Eventually i upped the ante and relaxed the rules. You would have won.

[@discardedbysociety]

The return of the king

[@RicoElectrico]

Next episode: NR making nitric acid out of thin air (no kidding, you can do this with an electric arc, Cody did it).

[@mohammednabeel987]

Birkeland Eyde Process

[@NormReitzel]

If you're actually going to use this method, I recommend using an oxygen concentrator to increase oxygen content of inlet gas to around 60% - the yields will be much higher. Used concentrators (that don't work well) are fairly available on one of the auction sites. Not working "well" is actually an advantage here, as what one is aiming for is 66% O2 and 33% N2 across the arc.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

​@@NormReitzel Having a high current and relatively low voltage arc increases the efficiency dramatically, the key is to make it stable which is the difficult part, reason why many get low efficiency is that they use very high voltages and low currents like neon sign transformers, the arc is stable due the high voltage but very inefficient in turning power into heat.

[@NormReitzel]

@@teresashinkansen9402 I concur. However, it's not just kinetic. You end up with hot gas, and there is no way I know of to instantly reduce the temperature of the gas fast enough to preclude the reverse reaction. In some way, you're faced with a compromise between the kinetic result - which in air, is 30% max, and the equilibrium result which is much much lower. Pumping extra oxygen into the gas stream helps by increasing the kinetic yield.

[@teresashinkansen9402]

@@NormReitzel Yeah that's true, quenching of the hot gases is vital for a good efficiency. A way to appreciate the importance of this is when a pot of cool water sits on a gas stove, you can smell the nitric oxides pretty well however if the pot has no water and becomes very hot the smell is almost non existent. So it could be analogous, just after the gas leaves the arc zone a water cooled wall with small fins to quench the hot gas. Hope to experiment with higher oxygen concentrations eventually it seems like a great way to increase yield even further and easily.

[@chrisbusenkell]

Another great video, thanks for all your work. With regards to the manufacture of nitric acid, years ago I tried all the routes that involved easy to obtain reagents and minima l technical equipment. At the end, I was left wondering how they ever managed to create a sizeable, pure amount of HNO3. None of the processes are technically difficult, time consuming perhaps. Nor did any involve a reaction too difficult for a 1 semester high school student to understand. And yet, my yields were far less efficient than yours and always left me convinced I had made a nitric acid contaminated with nitrous acid. Anyhow, God bless the modern era, the internet and credit cards...the peace of mind buying it pure and concentrated is a blessing. Thanks again.

[@joek511]

I have done this many times. Vacuum flasks work great. I use fish tank air stones in the water. A hole in the cork for the feed line, attach 2 check vales to the vacuum nipple. The first one to allow air in, then a second one to allow the gas out to another flask. you can chain as many as you want together and never get back flow. 3 seems to completely scrub all the No2. Don't use tap water,

[@FailedSquare]

Awesome idea, its good to document this since not everyone is gonna be able to use the other easier methods.

[@priyadarshiraj6227]

I don't always watch NurdRage... but when I do... I make fuming Nitric acid

[@ninil.9287]

I would love to see a nitric acid video out of thin air from you (Ref. Cody). Can't stand the way Cody measured the yield through pinches of baking soda :D I recently read about the Zeldovich mechanism describing the thermal NO formation from air. Interestingly the formation through a nitrogen is much faster than that through an oxygen radical at high temperatures, which would basically mean that lower levels of oxygen should form more NOx Gases than a stoichiometric mixture of 67 % O2 and 33 % N2 could do. Sadly, I don't have a lab to test it.

[@spacecomma4678]

Amazon sells basic copper nitrate, which I believe is the intermediate when decomposing the hydrates to NO2, for $9 USD per lb (+ $17.50 shipping). If it wasn’t for the shipping this might be a cost effective lab-scale method. I can get conc nitric locally for $70 per liter - still kinda pricey but gonna keep this method in mind. Thanx for the video. 👍

[@katiefrisk980]

i'm not sure that's worth it, since the first step of decomposing the hydrates to basic copper nitrate accounts for 75% of the theoretical yield of nitric acid

[@spacecomma4678]

Katie Frisk I’ll give it a whirl one of these wknds and, if it’s feasible, post a vid on my channel.

[@spacecomma4678]

Katie Frisk ... never mind, I crunched the numbers and it always comes back to economy of scale. Basically 1 mole of copper nitrate (basic or not) makes 1 mole of nitric acid. Assuming a final concentration of 70% (w/w) HNO3, then according to online prices, you can start breaking even if buying in the 100 kg range of reagent (+ your labor). So as always: don’t make it if you can buy it. But I’m always looking for someone to have an a-ha moment and discover something new. BTW, Science Company sells 2.2 L for $87 and I’m a couple miles away, so there you have it. Cheers 🥂

[@twocvbloke]

Sounds like a case where "Work smart, not hard" is needed here, like using a neon transformer to generate nitric acid from thin air, even I'm fascinated by how that process works, kind of like magic to me, but with electrickery... :D

[@Alondro77]

Drop a piece of palladium into a mix of oxygen and ammonia. ;]

[@bagggg445]

I made Cu(NO3)2 today by combining NaNO2 with HCL which I think releases HNO2 that dissolves into solution to become nitric acid , then I added copper metal. Nice colour

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

That would be copper nitrite

[@Ario_111]

Great video as always!

[@quoverlord9398]

I have to study for a quiz, but when I got the notification, I clicked. I have my priorities straight :)

[@piranha031091]

No, you really don't.

[@quoverlord9398]

@@piranha031091 i was trying to be funny sorry :c

[@sparraAus]

I have gallons of copper nitrate as a waste product from silver production, (i scrounge abandoned mines from the 1800's for remaining ore).

[@FreelancerFreak]

Isn't that dangerous 🤔

[@sparraAus]

@@FreelancerFreak sure is. But i have all my safety equip inc. Air quality meters and Geiger counter. And did geology.

[@Alondro77]

Getting copper back is easy. If you add a little HCl, the chloride facilitates the reduction of copper with scrap iron (I use angle iron or uncoated rebar, mostly). Then you get iron nitrate solution and pretty pure copper. The iron nitrate decomposes into iron oxide and nitrogen dioxide at only 80C, so it makes the nitric acid recovery process much simpler. You can bubble the NO2 gas through an aquarium bubble stone into a tall column filled with cheap 3% hydrogen peroxide (I can get it at typical club stores for about $1/liter) which greatly increases nitric acid recovery, as the hydrogen peroxide directly forms nitric acid upon exposure to nitrogen dioxide.

[@gayusschwulius8490]

Could you do the Birkeland-Process?

[@sherannaidoo2712]

Calcium nitrate is sold in most garden stores for feeding tomatoes. You'll find copper sulphate there too...

[@joshborchardt5050]

My favorite part was when you said: I vow to never do this again...lol Peace be thy Journey and I hope life finds you good.

[@fireveno]

I love when other experiments are hard or dont work

[@tahajaafar6321]

Nurdrage! I LOVE YOU

[@ARandomTroll]

you should try catalytic oxidation of ammonia. i read on sciencemadness, that some transition metal salts can be used as catalyst instead of platinum. pure oxygen might also give a decent yield.

[@jadentonkin466]

can i add some anti freeze to water then super chill it in the freezer and run it through would it be possible to get 82% yield with just 1 capture set up ?? also surely you can use sodium hydroxide instead of calcium hydroxide... sodium is more reactive then copper so it should still work in the displacement

[@MyriadCelestia]

thanks for the videos nurdrage!

[@h.a.4286]

If i just wanted to make Copper nitrate could i just use CuCl2 and 2KNO3 to make Cu(NO3)2 and 2KCl ?

[@geeljireoomaar6140]

Thank you Nurd Rage. I want ask you a question. I watched your video about reverse osmosis. Is it possible to use that membrane in electrolysis Thanks

[@OldOwlCraftworks]

Could this also be done with Zinc Nitrate? Distilling off Nitrate Acid and leaving behind Zinc Oxide?

[@sargon6000]

@NurdRage You could also try thermal decomposition of magnesium nitrate hexahydrate. It's sold as fertilizer so it should be available. The thermal decomposition of Mg(NO3)2*6H2O is 89 °C, so it's fairly low.

[@NurdRage]

actually i tried it, it needs 300 celsius to start, it's doable, but so much harder than copper nitrate

[@sargon6000]

@@NurdRage Ah, so the hexahydrate doesn't decompose completely? Just partially until all the water is driven off and then you're left with, I assume basic magnesium nitrate and some anhydrous magnesium nitrate? Since the latter needs 300 C to completely decompose.

[@jtbmetaldesigns]

Well one can heat sodium bisulfate monohydrate with the magnesium nitrate. Might be doable at a lower temperature. Funny, I can buy potassium nitrate by the kilo on the cheap but sodium nitrate is getting a little difficult to find. I need sodium nitrate for aqua regia and nitrogen oxides when I don’t want to use my precious nitric acid.

[@sargon6000]

@@jtbmetaldesigns Wow, old comment. I recall the first time I tried heating the magnesium nitrate hexahydrate, some brown smoke was released, meaning NO2, but ultimately not much was produced. I guess for complete decomposition one really needs 300 C, like NR said.

[@jtbmetaldesigns]

@@sargon6000 Well I have Epsom salts and calcium nitrate(ammonium free) I got from hydroponics outlet cheap. I could make magnesium nitrate or buy it from the same outlet. Anywho, I’d think the nitrate would come off with sodium bisulfate or sulfuric acid and probably easier than alkali nitrates. An added bonus is the divalent charge on magnesium releases two moles of nitric acid.

[@onogrirwin]

FUCK YEAH HES BACK!

[@piranha031091]

8:32 : can't the aerosolized copper oxide issue be entirely avoided by placing a small ball of glass wool at the bottom of the distillation head, to filter and retain any solid particles?

[@davesulphate4497]

That would probably prevent most of the gas from getting into the condenser, or at least slow it down too much to be practical.

[@piranha031091]

@@davesulphate4497 Not really no. You can easily gently blow through a ball of glass fiber in a tube. The gas in this reaction is evolved very slowly in comparison. When gas is produced, it *has* to go somewhere. It will only take an insignificant pressure rise in the conical flask to push it through a loose ball of glass wool. Solid particles, on the other hand, should easily stick to the strands.

[@davesulphate4497]

@@piranha031091 The ball of glass fiber would be wet and this can significantly slow the motion of gasses, but yes it will go through. The real problem is that the acid will redisolve the copper and not stay stuck in the fiber.

[@piranha031091]

@@davesulphate4497 Yes, the acid will redissolve the copper, but that will either stay in the fiber ball, or, when enough is there, drip down back into the conical flask. It wont spontaneously rise up the distillation head. Unlike aerosolized particles.

[@davesulphate4497]

@@piranha031091 Yes, sure, all I am saying is that it has issues that need to be considered. For example, while the liquid wont spontaneously rise up the glass, the wet wool with gas pressure really could. Then the liquid could go through. These issue can be got around, and maybe it's a good idea but to me at least it seems unlikely. I have been wrong before though, so maybe.

[@AJ-sj3cj]

finally, I get what i was looking for thanks !!

[@miketoreno4969]

Thank you sir, i really like your videos

[@spiveeforever7093]

Would this method be easier or harder than doing both a sulfuric acid production and then a distillation? (Assuming you had some initial nitric acid to start the process?)

[@johnathancorgan3994]

Do you think the calcium sulfate could have been filtered with suction and a Buchner funnel with filter paper on the bottom?

[@hopeforescape884]

Would it be possible to just leave the CaSO4 mixed in with the Cu(NO3)2? And skip the filtering ,since it doesen't intervine in the decomposition reaction.

[@drinventions9742]

You should do a video on making Nitric acid, using Vinegar as the acid source, that would be Very interesting and impressive

[@jtbmetaldesigns]

You can suction filter calcium sulfate. You just need a porcelain Büchner funnel with appropriate filter paper. I got mine in a kit with filter flask and a stopper with proper hole. The whole process on a 1 liter scale, including washing precipitate takes less than one hour

[@mikegLXIVMM]

I have a lot of Potassium nitrate and copper sulfate. My question is: will the two when combined in solution, cause a double displacement reaction( salt metathesis) and form potassium sulfate and copper nitrate?

[@embergeos]

AYYYYYYY NURDRAGE IS BACK

[@goranaxelsson1409]

Very interesting. I assume the reason you don't decompose the calcium nitrate directly because it takes much higher temperatures before decomposition. But how about iron nitrate? It is easy to get iron sulfate and calcium nitrate as fertilizers where I live. Mix it together and you get iron nitrate left in solution. From what I could see the decomposition temperature should be about the same as for copper nitrate. And I totally agree, filtering off calcium sulfate isn't fun.

[@stevenclark2188]

Is hydrochloric acid strong enough to have a path? And would purifying the output of vinegar and table salt be less labor intensive than filtering rootkiller?

[@htomerif]

Huh. Can you nitrate things (or nitrite things) with just liquid NO2? Its got to be really quite reactive to react with water at room temperature(ish) and form nitric acid.

[@morareduard]

Will you ever try and build a Birkeland-Eyde reactor?

[@mohammednabeel987]

With Microwave Transformer

[@TheBackyardChemist]

@@mohammednabeel987 MOTs are a great way to die

[@UpcycleElectronics]

Hey Nurd Rage Do you have any advice on fumigation with sulfuryl fluoride? There is a flood of official documentation available via web search, and the typical pseudoscience hysteria as well. What I haven't found are how the detection sensors work, and a layperson friendly breakdown of the post fumigation process chemistry. The California regulation documentation mentions the sensitivity of a few sensor systems by brand and product, labeling some as adequate and others as inadequate. So what's the deal? What are the detection processes and calibration?

[@rickydona919]

would it be easier to make copper nitrate by just dissolving copper in nitric acid?

[@spiveeforever7093]

Ha! Just use nitric acid, to make nitric acid! In fact, that reaction produces nitrogen dioxide in the process, so you don't even need to do the thermal decomposition! Just treat the copper nitrate as a byproduct, of making nitric acid out of nitric acid ;)

[@koukouzee2923]

Is there anyway to build the no2 or no3- with domestic Chemistry? (not the spark way)

[@ucantSQ]

I've seen a similar method, except the nitrogen dioxide was created with a high voltage discharge and forced into the water with a fan or something. I always figured whenever I needed HNO3, I'd get it that way.

[@FrietjeOorlog]

You said you couldn't use suction for the filtration. Why?

[@petevenuti7355]

Would making a eulectic salt of potassium nitrate and copper sulfate and attempting to thermally decompose basically do the same thing?

[@Sazoji]

is there a reason to distill the water instead of boiling off?

[@NurdRage]

it's just cleaner, i hate having condensation in the ventilation shafts of my fumehood. It creates rust and mold. By all means just boil off directly if you want. (although a more professional reason is to capture any accidental distillations of product. For example, you accidentally heat too hard and distill off some nitric acid. Since you collected it, you can reprocess it. While it's not really necessary in this case, i've kept the habit from my professional work where one mistake could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to the company.)

[@julasxziom6386]

What about stability of nitrates? Is this safe to heating it? I'm not sure about calcium nitrate- i used it for making liquid NO2/N2O4 by heating, but it can detonate like ammonium nitrate if heated enough?

[@timeisajourney6062]

mercury fulminat, pls inquire how to modulate, thank you

[@Prchemist06]

Can making salts like potassium nitrate or other nitrates be possible to make by just using ammonium hydroxide or chloride with other potassium or sodium salts

[@anarhuseynov4162]

Please make a video of thermal decomposition of magnesium nitrate for getting nitric acid.

[@Romuls753]

Is there a better way to make copper nitrate than shown in this video?

[@Valkyrie2T]

Please sir how can we extract phosphorus from phosphate

[@brazilianambassadordale8223]

There has to be a method to prevent flow back... What I'm thinking is a one way valve of sorts: ie a piece of lose tape placed somewhere on the inside of the tube that is pressed up against the tube during bubbling and gets pulled off if the pressure within the tube drops as liquid gets sucked up the tube.

[@BrendaEM]

It would be interesting to try to use an old microwave oven to create plasma, like a plasmoid, to create nitrogen dioxide from air, to make nitric acid. With a little extra cooling, it could run continuously. It would seem that one would need an air pump, and some kind of chamber, which would have to be water cooled, and then the nitrogen-dioxide could be bubbled into water. It might have to have a lower duty cycle. [I made a microwave plasmoid for a moment. It did make some nitrogen dioxide, which is an unwelcome guest in a microwave that I wanted to use for food, after.]

[@eastoningram5616]

Great video. What is your opinion on Nathaniel Hawthorn's "The Birthmark" and its attitude towards chemistry?

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

I have a possibly strange question. Is it possible to dehydrate hcl? If so, what would be the end product?

[@bormisha]

Hcl is actually a gas, so I guess that would be the end product.

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

@@bormisha hcl is a liquid acid better known as Hydrochloric acid. Dehydrating it would be removing the hydrogen and ending up with either a liquid or a solid. But I'm not sure what the end product would be. That's why I asked Nerd Rage, not you.

[@bormisha]

@@MikkellTheImmortal Thanks for the explanation. Though, Hcl is actually the hydrogen chloride gas, you may check Wikipedia on hydrochloric acid to confirm it. If you remove hydrogen from HCl you'll be left with Cl2, which is the chlorine gas.

[@michaelmerritt7406]

@@MikkellTheImmortal If you make a correction, then you should make sure you're right. You can't "dehydrate" water. You can seperate HCl from water, but that's not hydration. You're just removing the solute from solution. At which point you get a gas - hydrogen chloride gas. This is it's natural state until it finds water to dissolve into. If you're asking what happens when H is removed, as in, what you get when it's "deprotonated", which it does in aqueous solution, then you simply get a proton and a chloride ion. They'll exist like this until they reform in equilibrium or pulled out if solution, or until they're reacted with something.

[@MikkellTheImmortal]

@@michaelmerritt7406 I think you answered my bizarre question

[@scotts.2624]

I am perplexed why you did not bubble the nitrogen dioxide through the water instead of just allowing surface contact. There seemed to be a lot of nitrogen dioxide just floating away. Is it bad to bubble it through?

[@NurdRage]

i show it later on the video a bubbling based system.

[@SIGSEGV1337]

Can you do a similar thing with the thermal decomposition of urea?

[@jeffevarts8757]

(IANA professional chemist) Is this clean & well-balanced reaction related to the fact that copper in nitric acid gives off nitrogen oxides, and that the reaction won't start until you add a bit of water? There seems to be a lot of symmetry here.

[@micheleballan5124]

Is the azeotropic nitric acid u obtain with this method?

[@micheleballan5124]

of course it is u reactin with water, how stupid i am

[@robsonhahn]

What about the production of NO2/N2O4? Would worth separate the synthesis in HNO3 and NO2/N2O4? I've noticed that a lot of NO2/N2O4 was released during the fractional distillation column part.

[@Alondro77]

N2O4 can be dealt with by bubbling the gas through 3% hydrogen peroxide. It'll break it down and convert it directly to nitric acid. In plain water, it'll give a mix of nitric and nitrous acid, which requires additional heating and oxygen to cycle around to get more nitric acid. But H2O2 skips that by directly attacking the N-N bond, forming two NO2, which the reactive hydroxyls from the peroxide bonds with and creates nitric acid. The process is most efficient with 30% hydrogen peroxide, but that can be very dangerous to work with and is rather bound to attract attention if you're buying gallons of it, since it's kinda sorta the thing people can use to make kabooms. ;]

[@chemistryscuriosities]

Could you do a Piperizine synthesis maybe even from cat/dog dewormer?

[@jbone877]

When dealing with calcium sulfate, would it not just be easier to decant, through filtration, stopping the pour once hitting high concentration of calcium, refill the flask containing the calcium w/ distilled water, and decant through filtration again? At the expense of a little bit of water, as well as time and fuel to boil that water off, you can save yourself a day of tied up equipment - which, in all but the most dire of situations, with profoundly limited access to any resource but time, seems the most economical choice

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

Can you avoid most of the filtering by washing the products in a settling column? E.g. use a glass cider jug, feed water in at the bottom with a long tube, siphon stuff off the top into a distillation flask and feed the condensate back into the jug via the long tube. If you have a cheap source of jugs, you might even include more than one stage. If the flow rate is slow enough it should settle faster than the water rises and once set up it should be able to run most un-attended. As long as you don't run it *too* long (and do what a soxhlet extraction is designed to do) that should significantly reduce the amount of material to filter out.

[@rolandosaldivar5366]

Does it work for magnesium nitrate?

[@NurdRage]

yes, but you need higher temperatures, i tried it but it was too slow and too hot for my liking.

[@RobotN001]

Why didn't the water just boil away? Has the boiling point increased to the decomposition temperature?

[@Teth47]

So is there some reason that centrifugal filtration isn't a thing? I mean, you could stuff a coffee filter into a juicer and probably get a pretty good result at blinding speed. It's basically gravity filtration but on Jupiter.

[@bytefu]

You'll have to use stronger filters or more of them, otherwise they will be torn. Either way, that would slow down filtration, and I'm not sure you'll get a decent enough speed-up for all the trouble. I guess the only way to know is to try. You probably can make your own specialized centrifuge from scrap parts, such as a motor, strong wire, a bunch of tin cans and a plastic funnel. I might actually try to build one for coffee 😀

[@mr.x8259]

Uncle Fester would like this.

[@PaulAllee]

Copper nitrate as a metal refining waste solution would be perfect for this since you'd get your nitric back to do another boil and get copper nitrate again

[@courtneymauboules9643]

Can anyone suggest a book that would cover the lab process of creating various bases, acids, and metal salts? I'd like to add it to my SHTF prepper library but I can't seem to find anything but textbooks, looking for more of a handbook/cookbook style

[@tahajaafar6321]

Can I extract nitric acid using inert solvent? DCM? CHLOROFORM? DIETHYL ETHER? OH OH I read nitrates react with chlorine to make chlorite and nitrosyl chloride sooo? Can I make chlorates using nitrates?

[@tildessmoo]

I don't have any practical experience myself and just watch your videos for the entertainment value, but it looks to me like copper (II) nitrate is actually pretty cheap and easy to get. If you can just buy the copper nitrate, would you change your recommendation?

[@holo6883]

Oh boi. Time to fill in the safety sheets again

[@Saumiiiii]

POG

[@user-py9cy1sy9u]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fn7WY2Oerc9kaNU

[@King_Kristof]

Nice

[@joeybonneau1360]

What is the specific gravity measured of the final acid? Or are you measuring total yield based on volume of reactants? I'm confused... Anything over 70% HNO3 seems unlikely to be obtained by this setup tho 80% maybe possible with all the ice consumed. Would be nice if you did a few qualitative and quantitative tests with the HNO3 produced. Great channel! Thumbs up all the way.