Finding acid type

[Risen91]

Recently my grandad passed away and in his garage was a large glass bottle containing some kind of acid. This may be a simple question but how do I find what type of acid it is (e.g. Nitric, Sulfuric, Hydrochloric)? Also, how do I calculate the molarity of the acid once I know what type it is?

 

Again, sorry if its a silly or simple question, thanks in advance

[studiot]

No your question is neither silly nor simple, but I hesitate to answer for safety reasons without considerably more information.

 

First and foremost

 

Why do you think the liquid (?) is acid?

Is there a label? (it could always be mislabelled)

 

Some people keep other corrosive liquids in bottles, such as bleach or caustic soda.

 

Secondly what do you want to do with the stuff?

 

Now for some data specific quesions

 

What colour is the liquid?

Does it have a smell (care needed here in testing)?

 

It can't be hydroflouric acid if it is in a glass bottle.

How big is the bottle?

Can you post a photo?

 

You say it is in the garage.

It could be drain cleaner, rust remover, concrete cleaner (all of which could be pinkish phosphoric acid) battery acid.

 

Over to you.

Edited July 6, 2016 by studiot

[Sensei]

Recently my grandad passed away and in his garage was a large glass bottle containing some kind of acid.

 

I am sorry to hear about your lost..

 

This may be a simple question but how do I find what type of acid it is (e.g. Nitric, Sulfuric, Hydrochloric)?

Does it have some odor?

Nitric and Hydrochloric have odor, at least in larger concentrations.

Sulfuric is odorless.

 

Also, how do I calculate the molarity of the acid once I know what type it is?

If acid has significantly different density than water,

you could measure volume, measure mass, calculate density,

and calculate how much do you have it.

 

If there is 0% of acid, density is close to water density 1 g/mL,

if there is 100% of acid, density is close to mentioned on wikipedia website of acid.

 

If you have density larger than density on website of acid, you can safely exclude it.

Like f.e. 1.8 g/mL, it can't be neither Nitric nor Hydrochloric, as they have smaller max densities.

 

On f.e.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrochloric_acid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfuric_acid

there are tables showing how density varies with concentration.

 

f.e.

table on HCl mentioned density 1189 g/L

1189 g * 38% (by mass) = 451.82 g

451.82 g / 36.46 g/mol = 12.39 mol/L (and you see it's matching table data)

Edited July 6, 2016 by Sensei

[jessehk]

If it is nitric acid it should dissolve copper