making nitric acid

[boris_73]

how do you make nitric acid using potassium nitrate and sulphuric acid

[Gilded]

I think there was a thread/conversation about this, but it turned out that... eh, there was a problem with the forming of nitric acid or something.

[boris_73]

what do you mean i know nitric acid is formed by distilling potassium nitrate and sulphuric acid but i do not know how to distill it properly or the whole intire method involved

[Gilded]

I think you're supposed to have two bottles (thick glass or something), put the potassium nitrate and H2SO4 in the other bottle and leave the other bottle empty, then connect them with a hose and seal any openings with duct tape. Then place them so that the empty bottle is lower than the other bottle, and then place something cold under the empty. This a) just might work b) just not might work because there's a some sort of problem with nitric acid's forming (just can't remember what it was) or c) I remembered it wrong and the distillation method I told is freaking nonsense. :/ Hope someone who knows more about this sort of things can answer this. YT? bud?

[boris_73]

i dont mean to be rude but you have got that method from the anarchist cook book and the methods mentiond in the are completley misleading, extremly unsafe, and are very vague in mentioning the safty precautions and i will not be doing anything mentiond from there and nor should you for your own safty but Thank you anyway

[budullewraagh]

ok, take a heating plate and dissolve your nitrate salt in sulfuric acid (the more conc the acid the better your results) in a beaker over the plate. get GLASS tube to go between that beaker and another beaker that has water in it. you will want to make sure that there is no space connecting the outside atmosphere with this system. duct tape will not help you as the nitric will attack it. when you heat the system, nitric acid gas will come out, through the tube and into your other beaker. pressure will cause it to dissolve in the water.

[boris_73]

in fact if someone could tell me where to buy it that would do just fine as well i live in england, manchester

[boris_73]

there appers to be some method behinde you madness(sorry its just something my old teacher used to say) but there all so seems to be a few flaws such as how much nitrate to add how much sulphuric acid to add ect

[budullewraagh]

ah sorry. that's really up to you. if i were you, i would make sure the system had no openings and the glass tubing is short. nitrate reacts with sulfuric in a 2:1 ratio.

[budullewraagh]

ah forgot the chems.

 

get sulfuric from car batteries; just open, pour acid into a bowl, then filter the insoluble salts. you should get around 40% conc sulfuric from car batteries. as for the nitrate, look for salt peter or soda of nitrate. in the united states, we no longer are able to purchase it in stores. if you are feeling ambitious, look in old barns for manure with white powder in it. that is nitrate synthesized by bacterial action. if you are hopeless, urinate on feces and wait a week or two. it sounds absolutely grotesque (which it is) but if you need nitrate... theres also a plant that makes it.

[Lance]

I have been able to create nitric acid from NO2. Although I have no idea how pure it was. It was just an experiment to see if it was possible.

[boris_73]

that ways fine but it does not go in too any real detail i am really greatful though, i want to make about 500ml min 2.5ltr max at about 70% concentrated. so if anybody could give me detail that would be great, or even better again if someone could tell me where to buy the nitric acid in england that would help.

[boris_73]

LANCE how did you create it from NO2 i know if i distill the nitric acid i have got from the NO2 it will be 70% max as it forms a azeotrope with water at 70%

[Gilded]

Yes boris you are correct. I got it from some not-so-good-source-of-info like the cookbook, and I noticed that it wasn't too safe. But hey, I was pretty close to bud's instructions (and if you manage to find acid proof duct tape then you're all set).

 

"get sulfuric from car batteries"

 

I thought about doing that (to make perhaps permanganic acid or try the "piranha bath"), but those things are darn expensive! How much acid is there in one normally? I wouldn't want to spend too much cash for just a few drops of H2SO4.

[boris_73]

also if you distill the sulphuric acid you will have a concentration of about 98%

[r1dermon]

actually, KNO3 can be purchased at any brooks pharmacy. in 6oz containers. so can flowers of sulfur...lawn and garden centers no longer carry 10lb bags of the stuff though. lol. make sure your beaker doesnt directly contact that hot plate, use some veggie oil in between, so you get even heating.

[Lance]

NO2 reacts with water so I just put a few drops of indicator solution along with some water in a jar and sealed another jar on top of that with a Jacobs’s ladder inside.

 

Obviously this isn’t a real practical process but it was an interesting experiment.

 

Also if you leave the water out you can see the brown/red NO2.

[Lance]

Oh yea... I took a picture without the water.

[budullewraagh]

gilded, if you want sulfuric from batteries check a junk yard or something of the like

 

im not so sure you got nitric, lance. it may be nitrous. the anhydride of nitric is [math]N_2O_5[/math]

[Lance]

Hmmmm.... Maybe so. I dont know how relible you guys consider wikipedia.

 

 

"Nitric acid is made by mixing nitrogen dioxide (NO2), with water."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitric_acid

 

Edit: Also, if you decide to do this yourself be careful about the temperature inside the jars. The jars in the picture violently exploded throwing glass shrapnel everywhere.

 

Edit2: Doh... I wrote down NO3 in my lab notes... hrmmmm....

 

Edit3: wait no, that must have just been a typo... It says NO2 on the rest of the notes.

[budullewraagh]

ok, it works, but it isn't so effective. if you want it to work better use an organic reducing agent like formaldehyde

[YT2095]

the sulphuric and KNO3 distilation will work perfectly, but it MUST be done in all glass apparatus, no corks or rubber stoppers (unless you cover them with teflon plumbers tape).

 

NO2 and water will also make Nitric acid, as will Oxidation of Ammonia (used in Industry).

 

you can get a weak soln of nitric acid from some craft shops, it`s used to clean up copper metals before electroplating.

store it in Brown glass bottles or Aluminium.

[boris_73]

YT2095 when distilling could i just use a distilling beaker leading of into a flask or should i use a condenser as well leading it off into a flask, and also how much potassium nitrate and sulphuric acid should i add to make about 500ml or 2.5ltr any will do thank you

[boris_73]

actually, KNO3 can be purchased at any brooks pharmacy. in 6oz containers. so can flowers of sulfur...lawn and garden centers no longer carry 10lb bags of the stuff though. lol. make sure your beaker doesnt directly contact that hot plate, use some veggie oil in between, so you get even heating.

brooks pharmacy is a american ferm we do not get brooks pharmacy in england. thank you anyway

[YT2095]

use a condensor! for 2 reasons; 1) you`ll be wasting your product 2) you`ll be gassing yourself!

 

keep your receiver vessel on ice too.

 

as for the quantities 2 parts KNO3 to 1 part H2SO4, leaving potassium sulphate in your distillation flask and 2 parts HNO3 in the receiver.