Nitric and Hydrochloric acid Synth (2 Ways)

[@Psychx_]

As an EU citizen I cry, because I'd be treated as a terrorist and have my flat raided if I even thought about making nitric acid. Theoretically, a trial at the EU's human rights court could lift the embargo, as it puts everybody under general suspicion AND is by far not in proportion to the benefits it brings (effectively banning home chemistry and hobbyist research for "measures against crime and terrorism" that have been proven insignificant/useless), but I neither have the time, nor the money to engage in years of legal battle.

[@Moritz___]

Feel your pain

[@cezarcatalin1406]

You can literally make as much nitric acid as you please from air, water and electricity. Good luck to authorities for finding out you are making nitric 😂 I used ozone to make something even more potent than nitric acid… dinitrogen pentoxide or nitric acid anhydride.

[@experimental_chemistry]

As a citizen of the EU I share your pain. 😢

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

Just don’t tell anyone

[@yaykruser]

Dont worry, you cant get sulfuric acid anymore so this method wont work for you :/

[@flyingshards595]

This is definitely one of the better videos I've seen on these topics! The additional explanation of the chemistry was very well done. I also appreciate the practical approach and reasoning. I'll look forward to the next one, thanks!

[@commanderweeb9949]

impressive synth never thought about using waste bisulfate from nitric to make hcl lol certainly saves a lot of sulfuric acid PS from where i live its easy to acquire clear sulfuric acid drain cleaner but difficult to get clear conc. HCl so ive always been struggling with DIY hcl. Really helpful video

[@thomasdzubin]

Thank you for explaining the two temperature reactions that occur with Sulfuric acid. Other chemist channels gloss over this and just say “heat to 210 degrees. C” and don’t mention the lower temperature reactions that occur

[@integral_chemistry]

No problem! That kind of oversight has always bugged me too. I like to think in a way that my little niche helps to fill in some information gaps like that I often see left in other channels. It's stuff most people wouldn't care about, but when I watch videos like this, the "why/how" has always mattered to me more than just watching a tutorial.

[@ameliafox9429]

Excellent explanations! I'm a lab apprentice in the UK and it's so nice to see processes done so cleanly 😁

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you! Lab apprentice sounds cool btw. What would that be equivalent to here in the US? Like a PhD student or like undergraduate level?

[@jaimeortega4940]

Good job and good yield!

[@craigpater6278]

Impressive chemistry video excellent quality very well done sir keep up the good work. I think that it's also worth mentioning that an acid doesn't need to be a strong acid to be dangerous to handle. A good example of that is concentrated hydrofluoric acid which doesn't dissociate much in water and since dissociating completely in water is the main characteristic that defines a strong acid, hydrofluoric acid is a weak acid. Despite being a weak acid hydrofluoric acid is highly corrosive and extremely toxic with the potential to cause lethal systemic toxic effects due to the presence of fluoride in HF. Hydrofluoric acid is probably the most feared acid to handle among chemists and some professional chemists even refuse to handle or have anything to do with hydrofluoric acid due to it's extreme toxicity.

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you so much! And yeah I definitely should have touched on that, especially as the video became more of a general discussion of acids in general rather than just HCl and HNO3. Hydrofluoric acid is in fact one of the very few chemicals I absolutely refuse to work with under any circumstances, which always feels weird to me since excluding the noble gases I use almost every element from the first 3 periods constantly. Fluorine and Beryllium are really the only exceptions due to their extremely dangerous nature.. Same with Arsenic if you expand to the 4th period.

[@craigpater6278]

@@integral_chemistry I worked with a 10% hydrofluoric acid solution which was used as a rust remover when I studied metalwork in high school that's the only experience I have with working with hydrofluoric acid and I don't want anything to do with hydrofluoric acid now that I know that there are safer alternatives that are still effective in removing rust from metal

[@uhoh5473]

Another example is Hydrochloric acid it is a highly corrosive compound that can cause permanent blindness in concentrations.

[@craigpater6278]

@@uhoh5473 it's not the acidity of hydrofluoric acid that's the problem though, hydrofluoric acid is just as highly corrosive as hydrochloric acid despite being classified as a weak acid since hydrofluoric acid doesn't dissociate much in water and dissociating completely in water is what defines a strong acid. So in summary yes hydrochloric acid is a much stronger acid than hydrofluoric acid, but the difference is because hydrofluoric acid contains fluorine it's extremely toxic and far more toxic than hydrochloric acid. The mechanism of toxicity for hydrofluoric acid that makes it so lethal through all routes of exposure is complicated but in summary it's systemic fluoride toxicity including cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal and neuromuscular symptoms, electrolyte imbalance and enzyme inhibition which can lead to cardiac arrhythmias and death.

[@scienceMicroguy77]

What kind of chemistry classes do I need to do this kind of stuff? I only have 8 in regular college chemistry and 8 of organic,.​@@integral_chemistry

[@davidfetter]

Great video as always! I don't know if this is in your wheelhouse, but you touched on suck-back here, and dealing with it is a thing a lot of people learn about by not having prepared for it at all, or making preparations that almost work.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah I made several mistakes with suck-back in the past, notably much more often with ammonia but that is likely because I make ammonia much more often than HCl. An inverted funnel is ideal here, but I've had that fail as well when the funnel wasn't quite large enough.

[@experimental_chemistry]

​​@@integral_chemistry The size of the funnel doesn't matter, if you keep only its edge completely under water and not the whole funnel.

[@cezarcatalin1406]

How to make acids like a physicist: Hydrochloric acid: Extract the Chlorine and Hydrogen gas from the electrolysis of sodium chloride. Combine them in a water cooled condenser packed with small glass beads/shards and illuminate the glass with blue light or black light. The two gasses react under this condition releasing lots of heat and making hydrogen chloride. Nitric acid: Make an electric arc, ideally one that’s spread out over a large area, inject dry air into the arc, take the resulting gas, inject extra oxygen, pass it through a very cold condenser, collect the liquid N2O4 and recycle the rest of the gas back into the generator. Take the N2O4, bubble ozone into it, make N2O5. Now you can make nitric acid as concentrated as you like, including nitric acid with extra N2O5 dissolved aka “over 100% nitric”. Bonus: sulfuric acid Take plaster of paris, react it with bakers ammonia. Take the resulting ammonium sulfate heat it up to 250C to make ammonium bisulfate and dry ammonia gas, collect the ammonia (it’s useful too). Now, we can disproportionate the ammonium bisulfate into sulfuric acid and ammonium sulfate via electrolysis. The cathodic and anodic baths are connected via a wet silica gel channel. The less soluble ammonium sulfate collects below the cathode and the sulfuric acid collects in the anodic bath. Take the sulfuric acid, bubble ozone through it to destroy the ammonium impurities then distil the resulting acid.

[@hhkk6155]

Would watch those videos violently 😅❤

[@toxicthereporter515]

Apoptosis my beloved, showing me how to make strong acids and bases in my garage.

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Not just early rockets use HNO3. Several high-profile launch mishaps in China have yielded photos of huge clouds of NO2 billowing across residential areas. Daytime-launch videos of "Long March 3B Y90" are absolutely horrific.

[@CassidyGentry-lq8qf]

Thank you so much for the amazing educational video!!! Very well done😍

[@Godwh1sperer]

A pleasant entertaining video for those with a love for chemistry. I;m waiting for How To Make Sulfuric Acid. Diaphragm cell? Pyrolysis of gypsum?

[@aahaanchawla5393]

I really like this video. However for the HCl synthesis don't you need to use an Inverted Funnel Arrangement which efficiently handles the reflux? Also since u had both nitric and hydrochloric acid I was kinda disappointed youdid not showcase Aqua Regia.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah I'm not sure why I didn't demo some aqua regia, although I am planning to do a full video on what acids can dissolve what metals (basically expand that into a whole piece on the reactivity series). But yeah an inverted funnel isn't required as you can see, but it is VASTLY smarter than the way I did it as it makes reflux nearly impossible if you set it up right. I only skipped using one because it made it impossible to capture that neat streaking effect on camera.

[@Relatablename]

Making nitric acid is easy enough, but cleaning up is really difficult. The NO2 fumes just sit inside the glassware, so I had to push it out with a compressor or high air flow fan. That makes it hard to scrub the gas without a bunch of NO2 escaping out into the atmosphere.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah I always pull it out using a vacuum at the end (probably should have mentioned that in the video). I also have an untrafine mister I load with either sodium hydroxide or some sulfite reducing agent and spray the inside down with that while the fairly dense gas is still inside.

[@shatunyra]

good job!

[@integral_chemistry]

Thanks!

[@jheadley635]

So when you make HCl, you're mixing solid NaHSO4 and solid NaCl, and then heating? Is there any water involved here, or are you actually melting solid salts?

[@integral_chemistry]

It's technically melting solid salt but I'm pretty sure it's hydrated sodium bisulfate which has a MUCH lower melting point than the anhydrous salt. Tends to harden once most of the bisulfate becomes sulfate

[@experimental_chemistry]

​@@integral_chemistry The sodium bisulfate which is sold as a pH lowerer for pools in hardware stores here is the anhydrous salt.

[@experimental_chemistry]

The bisulfate that's sold in hardware stores as a pH decreaser for pools contains the anhydous salt. But it's very hygroscopic so you will always have it bit of the hydrate in there.

[@phobos1963]

It's probably not the case, but please make sure you're not using H2SO4 waste for HNO3 synthesis that was used in an organic synthesis

[@opalproductionsandmidis7720]

Will this work with phosphoric acid? Because I have lot of H3PO4

[@s.u.r.i]

Can i use oxalic acid with calcium nitrate for nitric acid

[@vapenation7061]

i think organic acids don’t work. you can’t make a stronger acid from a weaker one

[@flyingshards595]

No idea on this specifically, but organics plus nitrate salts can result in rapid decomposition (often burn vigorously and sometimes unpredictably unstable).

[@tmantekkit8469]

There's actually a thread on science madness where someone did this, can make dilute nitric acid then distill to increase concentration

[@flyingshards595]

@@tmantekkit8469 ahh, the rxn done in aqueous phase with the calcium oxalate precipitating? Makes sense! Was thinking the idea was to mix dry powders and heat :)

[@experimental_chemistry]

Dilute sulfuric instead of oxalic acid works better, because the reaction is less concentration limited by solubilty of the acid. Furthermore sulfuric acid always drives the reaction to its completion while calcium oxalate partially redissolves in the presence of the strong mineral acid formed there. Made a video about the sulfuric acid displacement method on my channel. Unfortunately all alkali and earth alkaline nitrates are monitored substances in the EU.

[@a3b36a04]

Always wondered why chemists use bisulfate so often and how to make one when you can't find it in the hardware store.

[@zenongranatnik8370]

Best bisulfate source is pool pH decreaser sold in hardware stores, it costs like 4 euros for a kilo where I live. Check the label as only some pH decreasers are bisulfate based.

[@a3b36a04]

​@@zenongranatnik8370couldn't find the correct one. Pool pH decreasers where i live are made of sulfuric acid, lol.

[@ajingolk7716]

The thing with sodium sulfate and sodium bisulfate i think it has to do with amount of sulfuric acid

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah basically, you'd get sulfate if you used half as much sulfuric acid

[@jogandsp]

Worth mentioning for people that dont know: fuming nitric acid is REQUIRED for nitrations. Nitration doesnt work with lower concentrations of nitric acid because of the water present.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah.. I had been told that 70% nitric could work by several people if the sulfuric acid concentration was high enough, or that sodium nitrate could be used instead.. never had any success with anything but fuming nitric.

[@jogandsp]

@@integral_chemistry that's because the mechanism for nitration requires dehydrating HNO3 itself to form NO2+ which is the active species for nitration. If there is water around this won't happen

[@PyroRob69]

It seems most all nitrate reactions tend to evolve nitrogen dioxide. Is there any way to recover that for future use?

[@siemensbottenherr1359]

You can put an inverted funnel on the vacuum outlet which goes inside a water trap

[@PyroRob69]

@@siemensbottenherr1359 Does it easily dissolve back into the water? Does it actually give any decent concentration? What about using hydrogen peroxide instead of water?

[@experimental_chemistry]

​@@PyroRob69 Only the NO2, not the NO. Only low conc. can be achieved that way. Peroxide helps converting nitrous acid into nitric acid, but it contaminates the product, too. I made video about that method.

[@PyroRob69]

@@experimental_chemistry Ok, thanks. I will look it up

[@offgrid-j5c]

Who doesn' like fire and explosions!!

[@samuelbright8713]

O9

[@MrKotBonifacy]

Erm... nice presentation needlessly... OK, maybe not "ruined" but certainly spoiled by that totally needless background noise. And no, I don't mean "aesthetics", but "distraction". That background "thumping", even if at low level, does hamper the process of listening to the narrative and following it.