Easy way to make hydrochloric acid

[dom3mo]

This a tutorial on how to make HCI by mixing salt and vinegar. I found this as a thing to make shiny pennies it uses 4 solutions number 4# is HCI. Note HCI is very dangerous and you don't want to drink it or get it on anything.

 

Science Concept: By mixing vinegar and salt to make hydrochloric acid, a strong acid, it will dissolve away the corrosion compound on pennies.

 

Materials:

 

four 250 mL beakers

1 tablespoon (2 g) sodium chloride (salt)

cup (120 mL) vinegar

cup (120 mL) distilled water

cup (60 mL) detergent

several dirty pennies

 

Procedure:

Label the 4 beakers 1, 2, 3, 4.

In beaker 1, mix 60 mL of detergent with 60 mL of water.

In beaker 2, put 60 mL of vinegar.

In beaker 3, mix 1 g of salt and 60 mL of water.

And in beaker 4, mix 60 mL of vinegar with 1 g of salt.

Place several pennies in beaker 1, then into beaker 2, and then into beaker 3, showing that the pennies remain dirty. Then place the pennies in beaker 4 and stir. It may take a few seconds, but the pennies should come out shiny.

 

Introduction: Have you ever seen very dark and dirty pennies? I have and I always wondered how I could get them clean. I tried many different solutions and one of these works great. Which one? (Explain what is in each beaker.)

 

Explanation: If the pennies were just physically coated with "dirt", they would wash off with detergent as in beaker # 1. The "dirt" on the pennies is a chemical of copper oxide and can not simply be washed off with soap and water, as shown by placing the pennies in beaker #1. Vinegar alone is a weak acid so it won't work, as shown by beaker #2. Salt water also does not work, as shown in beaker #3. To clean the pennies, you need a strong acid, such as hydrochloric acid. In beaker # 4, when you mix the vinegar and salt, you make hydrochloric acid. This dissolves the copper compound. When salt is added to the vinegar, it is able to clean the pennies.

 

Equation:

 

HC2H3O2 + NaCl ---> HCl + NaCH3O2

(vinegar) + (salt) ---> (hydrochloric acid) + (sodium acetate)

 

CuO + HCl ---> CuCl2 + H2O

copper(II) oxide + hydrochloric acid ---> copper(II) chloride

 

Safety Precautions: Be careful with the hydrochloric acid. Use tongs to remove

 

pennies from it.

 

Waste Disposal: Dump all liquids in the sink and rinse out beakers.

 

Reference: Original Reference Unknown

 

Rosenhein, Laurence D. The Household Chemistry of Cleaning Pennies J. Chem. Educ. 2001 78 513. (April 2001)

[thedarkshade]

Even an easier one!

 

Mix Chlorine and water and you get hydrochloric acid (HCl) and hipochloric acid (HClO).

 

Cl2 + H2P ----> HCl + HClO

[Melvin]

Mixing chlorine with water will give you chlorine dissolved in water. Exposing this to sunlight gives you HCl and HOCl. Continued exposure to sulight breaks down the HOCl to HCl and O2.

 

If you can get HBr and Cl2, making HCl is easy.

 

2HBr + Cl2 --> 2HCl + Br2

 

If you can get H2 and Br2, you can make HBr. See http://orgsyn.org/orgsyn/orgsyn/prepContent.asp?prep=cv2p0338

 

Also, heating H2SO4 with NaCl will give you HCl and Na2SO4.

[dubois928]

What is the solution percentage in beaker 4 (salt+vinegar=HCl)?

 

Kenneth Anderson

[dom3mo]

What is the solution percentage in beaker 4 (salt+vinegar=HCl)?

 

Kenneth Anderson

 

60 ml of vinegar 1 gram of salt

 

So i guess another way to make HCI is to mix bleach with water and expose it to a lamp. That would probably make a weak solution.

[iNow]

"Probably" is not the kind of word you want to hear when taking chemistry advise from someone.

 

 

Maybe Darwin had a point about that whole "natural selection" thing.

[Melvin]

So i guess another way to make HCI is to mix bleach with water and expose it to a lamp. That would probably make a weak solution.

 

Mixing bleach and water will not give you HCl. Mixing bleach with HCl will give you Cl2, which would then be dissolved in water. (Of course, thats dumb because you need HCl in the first place!)

 

I think that the UV radiation from the sun causes the reaction, so it would have to be a UV lamp.

 

1g of Cl2 will dissolve in water at 10 celsius. This level drops to .6g at 25 celsius.

[dubois928]

60 ml of vinegar 1 gram of salt.

 

What I meant was, would it be like 30% HCl, or 50%, or whatever?

 

Kenneth Anderson

[dom3mo]

yeah did litmus paper test and it turned white. Just stick to vinegar, and salt solution. Im think this would probably produce 80% HCI i got this from somewhere else so. But I know that it produces HCI

[dubois928]

Im think this would probably produce 80% HCI i got this from somewhere else so. But I know that it produces HCI

 

lol

There he goes again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

probably.....

[dom3mo]

Well I did get this from somewhere else but it would "probably" be pretty pure HCI.

[dubois928]

I just thought of something. What would all this mean for Salt and Vinegar potato chips?

 

Kenneth Anderson

[dom3mo]

lol I guess your right but I think they dont mix them the same not making HCI "god I hope so".

[Mr Skeptic]

I just thought of something. What would all this mean for Salt and Vinegar potato chips?

 

Kenneth Anderson

 

Forgot to mention, you can get hydrochloric acid by vomiting. I don't think eating tiny amounts of hydrochloric acid will harm you, since your stomach already makes some for sterilization purposes.

[YT2095]

NaCl and Vinegar will NOT react and make HCl! Ever!

 

lets look at the whole thing in Reverse shall we, your Products that Think you will get are: HCl and Sodium acetate. now lets see what`s happens:

 

NaC3H3O2 +HCl = HC2H3O2 + NaCl

 

sorry to piss on your BBQ

[dom3mo]

Ok then but heres another idea you heat H204 and a metallic chloride in retort and the bubbley soulotion that comes out is HCI correct?

[YT2095]

H2O4??? Interesting

 

what you get in the Vinegar salt rxn is a solution that contain H+ and Na+ ions and Acetate- and Cl- ions.

 

it`s a Physical change only, it`s like saying that adding table salt to water will make Sodium.

So even though the H+ and Cl- are present, it`s not (nor will be HCl).

 

you can even test this yourself, mix the 2 together and then distill it, test the distillate with Silver nitrate, you`ll find there`s no Chloride present

[dom3mo]

oh well ill have to find another then

[YT2095]

aha! did you mean H2SO4?

 

in that case yes a metal chloride and sulphuric acid will make HCl and the corresponding metal sulphate (or mHSO4).

[dom3mo]

soory forgot the equation for sulphuric acid thanks.

 

Forgot to mention, you can get hydrochloric acid by vomiting. I don't think eating tiny amounts of hydrochloric acid will harm you, since your stomach already makes some for sterilization purposes.

 

I would suck to vomit and if you just ate the food would have just come out harder to get the HCI. Aslo HCI sometimes causes acid reflex which if keeps happieng will dissolve your liver or another body part. Drinking a small amout isnt so bad when you throwup. But i can wear or derstro your teeth.

[insane_alien]

you do realise that hydrochloric acid is HCl (a small L) and not HCI(capital i)

 

HCI(capital i) wouldn't exist(at least not for very long) and wouldbe called, umm, hydrogen carbon iodide?

[dom3mo]

aslo the chlorine and water thing should work its just chlorine is expensive.

[Melvin]

I guess nobody noticed that I mentioned H2SO4 + NaCl like 10 posts ago!

 

What if you boiled vomit and collected the vapors? Would the HCl be released as a gas?

[insane_alien]

why don't you go ahead and find out.

 

actually, to save the market value of your house, yes there will be HCl vapours but they will only make up a small percentage of the collected vapour.

[YT2095]

unlikely, you`de probably get ammonium chloride, proteins (amines) will breakdown and react, it really Would be a Silly thing to even try anyway.