Make Nitric Acid - The Complete Guide

We show 3 ways to make nitric acid based on two different chemical approaches both of which can be done using easily accessible materials.
Warning: The procedures in this video produce large quantities of toxic gases and deal with highly corrosive acids. All work must be performed in a fume hood with proper safety equipment. And all apparatus must be glass to withstand the acids.
Chemically, nitric acid is made by bubbling nitrogen dioxide into water. So the objective in this approach is to generate nitrogen dioxide. This can be done by reacting hydrochloric acid, a nitrate salt and copper. Around 80grams of sodium nitrate, over 30 grams of copper and 100mL of hydrochloric acid (37% 12M) are the quantities needed. The exact amount isn't critical. For usable concentrations, the amount of water being converted should be small, around 20-50mL.
Any source of nitrate is usable including potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and even nitrate-based fertilizers. You can use our previous video on testing for nitrates if you want to determine if yours can be used. • Video
The tricky part now is leading the gas into water. Two approaches are shown in the video. In the first approach three containers, such as jars are place inside each other to force the gas to go into the water. This is very inefficient but is very simple to do.
The better approach is to lead the gas out of the generator through a tube and into a chilled container of water.
The water that's converted into nitric acid can be replaced with hydrogen peroxide for better yield.
The chemical waste that's generated contains the valuable copper used before and recovering it is worthwhile due to todays high copper prices. This is simply done by putting in enough aluminum metal that it reacts with all the acids and copper in solution to create a slurry of copper. This can be filtered to obtain a residue of copper. Its highly contaminated but can still be used to make more nitric acid.
For further information on the chemistry type "copper and nitric acid" into google. The hydrochloric acid and nitrate salt behave as nitric acid (with nitrate from the salt and protons from the hydrochloric acid) and dissolve the copper releasing nitrogen dioxide gas.
You can use other concentrations of hydrochloric acid but you need to decrease the amount of water added to keep the concentrations the same.
Finally, the last way of making pure nitric acid is to react concentrated sulfuric acid and a pure nitrate salt (NOT fertilizer) and heat it in a glass distillation apparatus to distill over the pure nitric acid. Stoichiometric quantities of both reagents are recommended for maximum yield.
We get our glassware from chemglass or VWR

[@MRBCGAMER]

"If you blow air into it, it fumes!" "Do not inhale." My all-time favourite nurd rage quote :)

[@dirkswoles5549]

That's not even what fuming nitric acid ACTUALLY is

[@autumn2675]

pKai3 I know right? He sounds genuinely excited when he says it, then becomes serious again

[@gl1500ctv]

Nitric acid smoke... don’t breathe this!

[@shoppingrb9544]

Blow, don't suck.

[@masacatior]

haha

[@nightleaper]

Its 2019 and you've become a "Dr. Stone" fan =P

[@rendellvalles6749]

Read my mind

[@noblewatcher5732]

As a chemistry student and a dr. Stone fan I give your comment a like

[@domodomo5818]

hakhakhak... I thought I was online the one who came here just to know the information from that anime! hakhakahkahk

[@Kajujuu]

Yep! lol

[@ascaban6220]

now listen here

[@battal4341]

When you watch too much Dr.Stone and you wanna do the magic stuff.

[@ultralexgamer4976]

RaiNBow BRidGe

[@maxarbat197]

Wtf this is why I’m here

[@abangputra8472]

@@maxarbat197 why r u runnin'

[@logicwizard4781]

Trust me bro I am here for the same reason. 🤣🤣

[@wexiaj7276]

Omg heck yeah

[@NurdRage]

I wanted to show a wider range of approaches. If i didn't use water some viewers may get the impression water can't be used. Then i'd get questions like "couldn't you use water instead of hydrogen peroxide?" by showing both we see more perspectives and get a better handle on the underlying chemistry and how it can work in different ways.

[@gloriabadon2694]

Show me bruhda please

[@climeaware4814]

are you still alive? saw your vidio about 9 years ago

[@Andrew-my1cp]

4:05 I wanted to just point out that you can distill fuming (above concentrated) nitric acid, you just need to use concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid and distill. The sulfuric acid likes water much more and will keep it in the flask while the almost pure nitric acid distills over. Great video!

[@ironsales5669]

Thank you for the great information. I used to love my Chemistry classes in college and Nitric acid was used in many experiments but getting a supply has never been easy. I saved all my old lab workbooks and notes and would love to set up a lab and do these experiments again.

[@clintonodom6034]

You just dissolved my mind. Who knew chemistry could be so cool!?

[@dennisbrasket6613]

Thank you for your video clips, I'm just starting to refine metals with acids and I find your clip is so far the best example of this procedure.

[@galavizK]

Did it worked?

[@sdhUnriv]

Need this so i can make the revival formula

[@h3llh0undm0bile2]

WAIT, SEND THE SMOKE SIGNAL!! IM NOT THE ONLY ONE AFTER ALL!!!

[@arneshbiswas7748]

I need it too bud

[@KisekiTim]

This is like listening to the guy in SAW give a chemistry lecture.... which is FREAKING AWESOME

[@danielyost1382]

Wow this is very informative and simple to understand. It reminds me of many years ago as a student I had a very hard time with math and one teacher made a light Boulb light in my head that made it so clear. I'm a self thought chemist still learning at 66 yrs old.

[@skeeviesteve1071]

...seriously one of my most favorite videos to watch

[@TheKingofRandom]

Great video! Thanks for making this! When using sulfuric acid, can you use battery acid from an auto shop, or is that too dilute? Do you need to boil it down to a higher concentration?

[@abubakr7755]

You have to distil it

[@C_Castillo]

Wait, TKOR was here when he started his channel lol xp wtf

[@slipperyvlogger]

I don't know about this I just came because I saw the acid from saw

[@kelvinyonger8885]

Any acid should work, but it'll bring over water when you distill it. Using concentrated acid is necessary to create fuming nitric acid.

[@C_Castillo]

Just order sulfuric online its like 25 for a liter depending where you get it

[@TheKingofRandom]

Thanks for your quick reply!

[@aditishastri6087]

The King of Random Grant?!

[@alex_is...]

Thank you, Grant.

[@novafawks]

Love ya, grant

[@starfishprime2864]

rip grant :(

[@spiteye4206]

I can't believe that he didn't reply to your comments

[@MyDoorIsOnFire]

You are the coolest person i have never met, keep rockin on science dude.

[@marktracy1893]

Chemistry is so cool and fun! Thanks for the great videos!

[@dan-o9621]

Wow, I can remember making up a nitric-sulfuric 70/30 bright dip for our brass/copper parts before nickel plating...

[@Flame8boy]

this is freaking cool!!!!

[@wscamel226]

Your videos are awesome. Cool, helpful and straight to the point

[@splagyetsi3287]

I have wanted to know how to make this for so long. Thanks for the video.

[@brannigandupreez2083]

Beautiful! Now I can germinate my cardamom seeds!

[@damoncox2822]

Lol.......thank you....I had to google the correlation between cardamom seed germination......HOW INTERESTING I MUST SAY......very nice cover lol

[@THE16THPHANTOM]

how did i get here...oh yes i started with why is gold so valuable and clicked like a zombie and now i'm here.

[@Mahmood-]

the video from start to finish is brilliant.

[@psycotria]

Another excellent video. Very accessible to the motivated layman.

[@NurdRage]

Instead of actually understanding the origin of the rule or why it applies you rely on unscientific catch phrases and insults? Your so called "basic rule" only applies to certain limited set of circumstances. Primarily it applies to adding water to concentrated sulfuric acid. But if you don't believe me try this: Grab some vinegar in your kitchen (an acid) and add water to it. NOTHING will happen other than getting some diluted vinegar. Try to be smarter and less insulting will you?

[@jasonenns5076]

You forgot to add that vinegar is most commonly 5% acetic acid

[@firstmkb]

I learned in High School chemistry 40 years ago to "Add acid to watah, just like you oughta." I haven't run into any circumstances where that caused problems, even with vinegar, so it seems like a useful guideline.

[@shelbysgarage5828]

@@brandonknight7240 im glad i wasnt the only one who heard this, but to dissolve copper means that the acid and coppers by product is water soluble. So hydrochloric acid can destroy copper its byproduct isnt water soluble. I believe is the answer

[@manny101x]

Who’s here after watching the first episode of Dr. Stone ? :)

[@pootis1699]

What is dr. Stone

[@natsuuu0__0]

Uhhh me

[@ramenwithaliens5431]

Me

[@kianalvizo6407]

Yeah I watch dr.stone but I wanted to learn how to make this stuff for oxidizer

[@JesseSShaw]

Thank you for that comprehensive response. I was hoping I wasn't going to get the moronic, pathetic responses I normally get when I ask a question. That makes complete sense and I was already thinking along those lines. You have solidified my assumptions.

[@Chris_winthers]

Thanks, this is gonna be really helpful for... A project i'm working on

[@jumaknight_6358]

That's sorcery hahahaha Dr. Stone fan here

[@samuraijosh1595]

Which episode used any of this techniques?

[@gc6329]

Now all I need is some glycerin and sulfuric acid...

[@josephkim7368]

nitroglyercine?

[@s.sradon9782]

Try making biodiesel to get glycerine as a waste product and you will need heet (methanol) and lye and vegetable oil

[@ajpollard8096]

Mahamud Hussein graphite?

[@_Just_Andy_]

Nitrocellulose, smokeless gunpowder, is covered with graphite to prevent static electricity charge to blowing it up.

[@navaneethakrishnanr24]

[@williambtm1]

I marvel at the knowledge persons like your good self possess, thank you for sharing.

[@hirumaryuei]

Of all the videos you've uploaded, this is one that I wish you'd revisit the most. It's really dated and it shows, but it's still a great video.

[@NurdRage]

Yay more views!

[@deathkeys1]

next stop, explosives. powerful explosives.

[@adam3141]

And this is the reason why we can't buy nitric acid for purposes other than making explosives.

[@tokeenapitbulls]

adam3141 ssshhhh!!!the drones and NASA is watching .....lol

[@Saxy64]

Silly Nilleys. I use it for refining gold and silver. Make money, not bombs!

[@anthonypoole6901]

Mitt Notned amen thats my objective too

[@prathapchintuprathap7132]

Stupid girl bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

[@seanharris6359]

Good stuff that is alot easier than the method I was shown thank you

[@anthonypoole6901]

Dude this is so cool. I need to memorize your methods because i plan to dissolve a lot of gold to purity.

[@dwightgordon803]

Your description in the video says concentrated hydrochloric acid. When I have shopped for this, I have seen the word "concentrated" on acids from 37% all the way down to the 31.45% that you can buy at walmart. Are any of these okay to use, or do you need a specific concentration?

[@brendanstanford5612]

Dwight Gordon. I have the same question. I just recently acquired amonium nitrate, the only Hydrocloric acid I can access easily is 31% (muriatic acid) Have you found out if this is sufficient?

[@dwightgordon803]

I'm still in the research stages, haven't acquired any as yet. If we haven't gotten any response by the time I am ready to try it out, I'll let you know what I find.

[@dwightgordon803]

What I do know from watching other vids is that the words "hydrochloric" and "muriatic" are used interchangeably for the same acids.

[@brendanstanford5612]

Dwight Gordon. I'm about to test 31.5% HCI myself. I found some old cold packs that contain amonium nitrate so I'm finially able to produce some nitric acid to process a bunch of high quality gold connector pins I have. I'll post my results as well

[@gamemeister27]

Description says you can use different concentrations, but adjust the amount of water so the acid:water ratio remains the same as in the video

[@RichardsWorld]

I bet you can make some really good home-brew alcohol.

[@karlbe8414]

Thank you for your second method of HNO3 production. I can do this make some acid to finally process various ewastes for gold recovery and refining.

[@DanaWebb2017]

Used to have a pint sized bottle of Nitric Acid for testing for gold, wound up giving most of it back to lab store just got a little paranoid some how the bottle would wind up getting broke since I didn't really have a good place to put it and I would wind up with major contamination mess on my hands.

[@howtoguro]

Hmm, I had no idea that stronger acids form a Pseudo-Leidenfrost effect. Good video :)

[@banisan2035]

I don't believe it's comparable to the Leidenfrost-Effect. My guess is that the Copper forms Copper Nitrate in the Nitric Acid: Cu + 4H+ + 4NO3- -> Cu(NO3)2 + 2NO2 + 2 H2O But even though Copper Nitrate is highly solluble, it won't dissolve in fuming Nitric Acid, due to the high Nitrate-Concentration shifting the Chemical Equilibrium to the left side: Cu(NO3)2 Cu2+ + 2NO3-

[@howtoguro]

Well since this comment was a long time ago, I'm going to try and summarize my current thoughts. I think I was trying to say similar to the Leidenfrost-effect in the following way. If you were trying to melt Ice quickly, you would logically think Ice would melt quicker at higher temperature, but it's a little counter-intuitive to think that ice melts slower in boiling water. Likewise, If you were trying to react copper with Nitric acid, you would think higher purity acid would react with copper quicker, but It's also, counter-intuitive to think that a higher concentration slows the actual reaction. Bare in mind, this was 3 years ago, and I think I'm summarizing my thoughts accurately. :)

[@jaredmorein]

Actually, it's because you form copper oxide.

[@banisan2035]

Hm, that also sounds possible.

[@albertrenshaw4252]

I agree with you that the intuition behind it is very similar to the Leidenfrost effect, everyone in the comments thread is thinking way too analytically. In the Leidenfrost effect, the desired action is inhibited by a gas layer formed by the action itself. In passivation, the desired action is inhibited by a protective layer formed by the action itself. They are really similar, I think people want to just show off their intelligence and only know how to via disagreement.

[@guilhermecarvalho2373]

Hey! I would like to know the equation for that reaction.

[@Kaader_]

Which one the first the second or the third

[@punishedexistence]

I have always loved nitric acid, so powerful, yet such an interesting chemistry. Concentrated nitric or sulfuric acids are very unforgiving, so one small slipup makes you remember for life to treat it with great respect. Great video, good lab setup too!

[@Stop_stalking_me]

OMG OG

[@Eroamagorath]

strange to see so many people that dont have a clue of how a condenser works watching this... but awesome video, i'll start producing my own hno3

[@Apple-fj4bu]

I just came here to know how a bit of platinum could make infinite nitric acid....

[@Angelinas72]

I'm a Nitric acid panel operator in a fertilizer plant. I am using my girls channel at the moment. I retire in 12 years. Sounds like you are ready to step up and take my place..Cheers!

[@compresswealthdivideeconom3757]

canary skin?

[@chipperbem952]

Vacuum flask is 500ml I will have to do small amounts for Nitric Acid till funds improve, Keep on Rocking!

[@poecilia1329]

Very helpful, because it is really difficult to buy nitric acid in Japan.

[@rajeshshahi1000]

Not only nitric acid dissolves copper,peracetic acid does.

[@jogandsp]

Peracetic acid is a real acid, even if it only exists in solution. Just like carbonic acid.

[@johnhiggins3084]

Exactly dude full of it

[@bashkillszombies]

"Here I will show you three different methods with three different nitrate bases you will not be able to buy, find, or make. But you will still waste 7 minutes watching this."

[@NurdRage]

Plenty of things on youtube that are described but not accessible to most people. Like how to make nuclear weapons, jet aircraft, rocket ships and cars.

[@jamesmitchem948]

that answered a lot of the questions I had thanks.

[@titusneguers8577]

gracias amigo siempre es un placer ver tus videos

[@NurdRage]

Sounds dangerous, do you have sufficient safety measures in place?

[@anonamemous6865]

What is your safety measures may I ask?

[@HalfLife2Beta]

nice but what is it useful for

[@stavrosMETAL91]

to burn ex's face

[@WillsStuff3]

HalfLife2Beta loooads of stuff, can be used to make nitrate salts, to add nitro or nitrate groups to compounds, has many aplicatons

[@sprg42]

making nitrate salts, making nitrocellulose

[@hoddsesaurusREX]

Typically used in organic synthesis as stated above, nitrate salts are found in fertilisers which allow growth much faster than what occurs naturally. The nitronium electrophile is used in making many medicines too, often for low heart rate disorders :)

[@HalfLife2Beta]

***** you definitely look like an idiot because it is known for everyone that the concentration of toluene in things like paint thinners is too low to make anything. Tnt is not made anymore, by amateurs at least

[@natsuuu0__0]

Thanks for this, I can start making revival fluid now

[@jeffreyfelton8887]

Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge.

[@bonbonpony]

"How to make nitric acid? Just mix hydrochloric acid with...." "How to make hydrochloric acid? Oh, just mix sulfuric acid with...." "How to make sulfuric acid? Easy, just mix nitric acid with...." GAAAH! This is starting to resemble those irreducible complexity paradoxes from theory of evolution! ;[ How does one BOOTSTRAP this process to begin with when there's no acids around yet, just bare nature?

[@scottjohnson7433]

u can get sulfur trioxide from the decomposition of many metal sulfates at very high temperatures, which reacts with water to form sulfuric acid

[@bonbonpony]

@@scottjohnson7433 Ok, cool. Where can I get those metal sulfates then? And how high the temperatures I would need? Is fire enough?

[@scottjohnson7433]

iron (ii) sulfate occurs pretty commonly in nature as a mineral and decomposes at 650 degrees c if you wanted a practical way to make a strong acid without access to any of them today nurdrage has a video where he makes HCl from sodium bisulfate (very easy to get as a ph lowering chemical in pools) and table salt.

[@SynthieFlowers]

No matter how i do this, it won't work. Im using ammonium nitrate, and a strong cleaning chemical that contains hcl.

[@Thebarnardfactor]

What you need is a concentrated sample of HCl so the cleaning solution won't work as well

[@SynthieFlowers]

Would 32% muriatic acid work?

[@dylanlloyd3447]

Thebarnardfactor hey can you possible help me, if so let me tell you what happened so I tried the gas generator method and let no2 run through tubing and bubble into 50 ml of water, and I let it run for a good 15-20 minutes and I tested it by dropping copper into it and all I it did was bubble and bubble a lot but absolutely no color blue color change was observed nor was there any brown nitrogen dioxide gas produced, I've repeated this experiment multiple times now and I still get the same resultes, please help if you can:)

[@SynthieFlowers]

Yeah, same here, no brown Gas appeared. But I did do a ph test after and it was acidic. It barely reacted with the copper at all. I used the first method though. Note, don't go anywhere near the dead reacted mixture when you put in the aluminum. I was outside, and i still breathed in a ton of fumes.

[@dylanlloyd3447]

Maybe it's at a really weak concentration like nurdrage said in his video thanks for replying, I've also had the suspicion it might be nitrous acid and a plane to run air with a bubbler in to the solution with the no2 gasses bubbling through it to oxidize the hno2 (nitrous acid) to hno3 (nitric acid) since there is a mixture of both when bubbling no2 through water

[@chasebarnard1223]

Awesome video, It was rather interesting!

[@ivuvwev2127]

thank you for your information.. ITS very usable

[@wadehutchinson1963]

nitric acid .. and nitrile gloves? .. latex gloves? wont nitric acid cause those the burst into flames? wouldn't you be better off wearing none? and just have a bucket with sodium bicaranate and water handy?

[@printffff]

+Wade Hutchinson that's vinyl gloves, not sure what the fuming nitric acid will do to it though.

[@solemanmughal690]

Very nice Thanks a lot for nice n informative video

[@craigpater6278]

Fascinating chemistry video excellent quality sir very well done keep up the good work fortunately for me if I want 68% nitric acid it's not necessary for me to synthesize it because I live in South Australia where it's completely legal to buy small amounts of 68% nitric acid online (buying no more than one container of 68% nitric acid in a container that contains no more than 5 liters of nitric acid is completely legal in South Australia)

[@funnysciencemrsamir3968]

Good channel for scientific experiments

[@larryevans7669]

great video, thank you!

[@stigmastorm5204]

Great demonstration video. Though I understand that yields will vary, I would have liked to see what the final volume of the final products measured to give me a general frame of reference to calculate a material cost analysis. I'm debating buying nitric acid and paying the huge hazard fees vs making it myself. The general need is to find something to dissolve copper.

[@derivalz5062]

Very informative and original video

[@victoryfirst2878]

You sound just like my chemistry teacher so many years ago. Thanks for the memories NurdRage.

[@saunoraprom522]

Excellent video.

[@ryanedwards2021]

Awesome thank you . Very informative

[@johnkiss8804]

Any time I question handling a chemical or it's something I haven't done before I come here and check you and NileRed, Because you point out th dangers and safety precautions that should be taken. (Cody too but he caves in to the trolls when it comes to PPE) If you do revisit this one please consider mentioning your choice of gloves and why neoprene are so very very bad with nitric acid. The eyes you save adding a couple of seconds to your videos might belong to one of my grand children. Because of their age differences, we started out. I'd pick their video to watch and then have them tell me what they saw. I was surprised at the level of retention. Now I'm scrambling to keep up with 11 of them. I mention this because a couple of the older kids have decided to make their careers in chem related fields. Thought you might like to know, you Grant, Red, Elemental, and Cody have directly effected my family in a positive manner. Thank you gentlemen.

[@tridogdude1512]

You guys are friggin awesome.

[@briansoares453]

This worked great!

[@chipperbem952]

hello all, I,m was short on funds and ordered a 10 ml graduated cylinder, what are the adjusted amounts for vacuum flask and 10 ml cylinder using peroxide, This is the best informational channel for all chemistry experiments , NurdRage you rock !

[@Zander101084]

I LOVE THIS CHANNEL!!!

[@ericami5642]

Wow that tape trick to get the cover out was top notch.

[@hansomdaley3365]

Excellent thank you very much

[@logansilverwolf3358]

very educational thanks.

[@mtncbt8372]

When NO2 dissolves in water, to produce both HNO2 and HNO3. 2NO2(g)+H2O(l)----->HNO3(aq)+HNO2(aq). I like your videos.

[@brunodasilva2048]

cool stuff did the exact thing and work out great thanks

[@janhavi882]

Nice video as always

[@Vokunah]

Oh my god now i know what my white powder is!! thankyou so much NurdRage!!!

[@JesseSShaw]

Thank you. That is exactly the information I was looking for 3 weeks ago when I asked for help with quantities of the reactants. Unfortunately, it is 3 weeks too late. Thanks anyways.

[@hayesdlhs]

excellent video! Very useful acid indeed.

[@buckhubach2720]

If you let the dead reaction mixture sit for a long time, it will form white needle like crystals. They are actually really cool looking. After this happens, if you try to wash out your glassware with water it creates a very resillant stain inside. What is the chemistry going on in this waste product? Thanks for all of your videos. Best on KZbin

[@bushiseishin]

Hi. Just wanted to ask, on the 2nd method is the toxic gas stays on the vacuum flask? does it (toxic fumes) not goes out along with the nitrogen dioxide to the graduated cylinder?

[@RPREYNO]

I love your videos so much! I'm in Gen Chem 2 in college and these make me appreciate lab that much more!

[@thomasfarr16]

Good vid nice to see some chemistry how to videos.

[@Sayjo3]

Great video, thank you very much.

[@briansouth9325]

I see NileRed finally hit puberty. Congrats!

[@thelanner22b]

this is my favorite video!

[@pauls11B4]

In the 1st method shown could you substitute the hydrochloric acid for sulfuric acid,and if so would the yield be higher or lower do you think?

[@johnlbales2773]

On the last reaction you need to do the laugh. Very cool! Thanks.

[@lonewolfcoding5208]

in 2012 i dont have a computer at that time i watched this by using computer inside the computer shop because i was searching about my school project about history and heritage then i was curious how gunpowder is actually made then i searched this is what i found.

[@asmaulhusna8635]

best vedio i ever saw

[@HITCHHIKERNAIEM]

thanx for the info , nice video

[@angelooldman7201]

THANK YOU LOVE THIS VIDEO

[@kieranodea771]

That's a huge amount of nitrogen dioxide gas in that first method you showed, this MUST be done in a strong fume hood. I would not wan't that sitting in my back yard if I were a home chemist

[@rhett5798]

What kind of yield could you expect on method 3 using stoichiometric amounts of nitrate salt and sulfuric acid and controlling temperature to avoid decomposition of nitric acid?

[@kyfyfufdadof4708]

i like when it spilled at the end. its quite funny :D