In the same instance, I'd have added boiling water to the crude nitrate after putting it in the beaker; just enough to dissolve them. Might speed up recrystallizing & with less H20 to get rid of. :)
sreetips I came here because I usually follow you. I just wanted to reply so both of you know. You can make Nitric acid for free. If you take wood ashes as a source of potassium and your morning pee for the source of Nitric. You mix the two and boil that, the vapor that will come out as it boil will be Nitric acid. Just letting you know in case both of you didn't know.
Thanks for the chemistry class and it's exactly what I am looking for fuming red nitric acid, I need it to make mucury fulminate which is very dangerous but if stored in water it is safe as long as you don't drop it.
Hello - The video worked great. Was able to follow, adjust for my size equipment and the results were spot on ... The 1st time. I do have a follow on question for my 2nd and 3rd batch I did months later. Upon completion I did not have any Potassium Sulfate left over in the boiling flask. Why and what was the catalyst for this occurring? Hope you see this new question on an older comment. I enjoy the videos!
You should filter the potassium nitrate solution boil it until salt begins to form on a metal spoon or knife when it’s removed from the super concentrated liquid. The place in fridge for 4 hours, repeat process. Your yield will double if not triple, take less time and ultimately produce more nitric acid.
Question - On one of the videos on NileBlue (NileRed's second channel about random lab stuff and cleanups), he states that RFNA should be stored in a bottle only at like 50% of the volume, since the nitric acid fumes can build up the pressure and cause it to fail. Additionally, he said that he vents his bottle often, sometimes daily, to ensure pressure isn't built up. Do you do the same thing for RFNA storage?
I don't know about any of that stuff 😯 But just for good measure I did just check a glass bottle of concentrated nitric acid. That I made myself two years ago......... There was no pressure in the bottle. Everything looks good 🤔 Maybe Nile blue was speaking of some sort of peroxide compound. I know that can get explosive as it degrades with age.
Provided you have all of the glass laying around. Cost break down for ingredients looks to be US dollar $17 to $23 here. Vs. $50 to $62 for roughly the same amount of purchased nitric(if they will even sell it to you) at these quantities, no clue how the cost break down works for 55 gallon orders but I'm somewhat doubtful the savings with this scale there. Mileage may vary on those ingredient prices.
Another great video Philip. Thanks for the info and thanks to the people in the comments for the extra tips. Id add something, not very technical, but a thrift store stainless potato masher might help with breaking up the Potassium Nitrate crystals. Love your Audio track man. Dont ever change your style.
Hello man. Great video! I stumbled across this & learned alot! I'm wanting to try to make my own nitric acid as I currently have a bunch( fills up an entire 12x15 room) of computer & e scrap that I'm wanting to reclaim and refine PM's. I have some questions: 1) I'm wanting to use this single distribution simple distillation using 304 SS as the distillation tube( or as we call "the worm" instead of glass.( because I have an abundance of 304) glass filter flask as my pot, & a brown glass( lab grade that I haven't ordered yet) jar for the collection pot. Do you know of any problems this will cause? 2) After I reach 315 & stop distilling, can the sulfuric & nitrate in the still be reused or reclaimed to make future nitric acid? 3) couldn't I use the nitric to reclaim the pm from the scrap instead of AP? Seems like it would be much faster & probably produce more yield as efficiency would increase? This is a start, but can I please email you for more info?
Thank you I am happy you enjoyed the video.🤗 Yes you can use a stainless steel still. Just be sure to ensure the purity of the steel by using a magnet as 304 SS should be non magnetic. Once you have reached 315ﾟ keep driving it till It stops producing. The remaining product will be mostly Sodium bi sulphite. Not worth your time or energy trying to scavenge any remaining acid. As far as using nitric acid instead of AP. It takes about one Litre of concentrated Nitric acid. Per pound of scrap. To separate gold foils.
Regarding 2:03, adding potassium nitrate into water produces an endothermic reaction which is the cooling effect. On the other hand, if it had been an exothermic reaction, this would have produced a heating effect.
I appreciate the video, but I some questions. What is typically the time it takes you to do the distillation process? How do you figure out the purity of your nitric acid? Could you maintain a 290 - 300 degree temp and extend your distillation time and produce more nrtic?
@PhilipBender say I just made Potassium Nitrate from Instant Cold Packs which was my Calcium Ammonium Nitrate then separated to only have Ammonium Nitrate which I then added Potassium from a No sodium Salt substitute. Will this work for this Nitric acid synthesis? If not what would you recommend to purify homemade ingredients? Such as the ones that later yield such a fine chemical like Nitric Acid.
Probably better that you learn about it on your own. Playing with acids without any knowledge about basic chemistry isn't very safe especially if you plan to play around with nitrogen compounds. I can ship you a distillation lab I did recently. The principle is the same as what is described here and the apparatus used to distill is similar.
phillip I love your work , its amazing to watch you doing all this , I also want to do this , can you name sources where I can buy these chemicals , equipments and the scraps for the experiment . Love from India. ❤️❤️
Rooto Professional drain cleaner. I get it from my local hardware store. It's not always clear sometimes they just forget to put the dye and inhibitor in it. The reaction will still work fine if you have coloured sulfuric acid drain cleaner. Once you start the reaction the heat and acid will destroy any impurities in the mix. The solution will go clear very quickly. I hope that was helpful. I am happy you enjoyed the video
two quick questions... 1. are you removing the fore run and lower boiling temp distillate that comes over before you hit 135C, or are you keeping everything that comes over above a certain temperature? if not, wouldn't that result in a lower percentage final product? 2. putting the thermocouple in the glass thermometer well only gives you the temperature of the air in the well, not the vapour temperature. an alternative would be a thermometer adapter with a PTFE seal, and a PTFE coated thermocouple probe, or a regular glass thermometer. thanks for the video.
I collected the entire run into one bottle. I started with fairly dry high-purity ingredients. The resulting nitric acid is over 95%. It will instantly ignite lab gloves. You will only make water down acid if you add water at the beginning of the reaction 😉
Using such a higher concentration of nitric to dissolve silver, would you recommend making two containers of 95% nitric? In a proper bottle, how long can it be stored and in what temperatures? I live in the southern nevada desert
can i use NPK fertilizer instead of the potassium nitrates? its a fertilizer that contains nitrogen phosphorus and potassium, but about 60% if that is potassium
once there was a harty scolor who is no more for what he thought was h2o was h2s04:=) i have noticed titanium camp cups and pots how hard would it be to convert one as a distillation rig as it would last a lot longer then borosilicate glassware as it would not crack from uneven heating or brake when dropped just wondering?
Is there a way to refine the stump out to get pure sodium metabisulfite to use as a precipitant? Or would it just be easier and cheaper to buy the sodium metabisulfite
It is cheaper and easier just to purchase sodium nitrate from Amazon. I was demonstrating that it was easily extracted from the spectrum brand of stump remover. Only the spectrum brand contains sodium nitrate. Do not use stump remover containing sodium metabisulfite.
Yes it is cheaper to make the acid. Also the acid I produce is much stronger than the store-bought. The best you can purchase online is 70% the acid I make is greater than 95%.
Baking soda is my neutralizer of choice because it will not harm your skin. You can use sodium hydroxide for the cleaning phase or to neutralize your acid just don't get any on your self.
Is nice video, at the end I recommend to be use dark glass container instead transparent glass because HNO3, specifically at high concentrations forms will decomposing by the lights..
You can purify your potassium nitrate in any container. I used glass so you could see what was going on for the video. I normally use a stainless steel bowl to purify my potassium nitrate. As far as making and distilling nitric acid. I would definitely recommend using glass. Hot concentrated nitric and sulfuric acid are extremely corrosive.
@@philipbender956 I do not have a distiller I certainly do not have that expensive glassware. I looked to see if I could buy nitric acid but my friend told me that it is watched because of people making bombs. I want to use it for gold recovery
@@Butterflytaxidfw you can get a glass distillation apparatus off of eBay for $30. Just look up distilling kit. Also you can purchase 70% nitric acid off of eBay. the only reason the government would think you are making bombs with nitric acid is if you also purchase other bomb-making supplies and you start watching a bunch of videos on how to build a bomb.
@@Butterflytaxidfw I completely understand I definitely wouldn't want to break the law either. I don't think the feds would look into you unless you were purchasing gallons of nitric acid. Then they may be more curious as to how you're disposing of it versus whether or not you're making bombs.
I deduced the purity from density it weighed out correctly. Also if you don't add any water and you dry your ingredients. You will always produce a very high percentage. Another trick is to add a little extra sulfuric acid to gobble up any water present.
i have found that if you filter of your water from the first batch and use it in a second batch you get a much better yeald first batch i got 2 pounds from the 3 pounds i stared with the second batch using the water from the first batch i got 3 lbs 2 oz of crystls
@@philipbender956 that makes sense. Why is the nitric acid dense yellow at a higher concentration instead of clear? Do it contain sulphur contaminates?
@@tipxking9944 that's the brown NO2 gas, the reason it's called red fuming nitric acid. Very toxic. Above about 70% concentration it starts doing that, because some of the nitric acid decomposes into NO2. You can also dissolve NO2 back into water to produce weaker nitric acid.
Yes. What is left over is mostly the cutting agent. Potassium nitrate is extremely hydroscopic. It will pull moisture out of the air. I think they add something to prevent this from happening. And a small amount of dirt. Most likely from the facility where they store the potassium nitrate and mix the cutting agent. It should be safe to pour down the drain as this product is designed to be used outside in the environment. It is stump remover.
@@philipbender956 thanks for quick answer. I just crystalized some potassium nitrate from China and it was heavier going in than it was coming out. I think the stump remove is more pure. More expensive tho so crystallizing it is great for me.
Would Nitric acid be the only chemical that would work in separating some heavily coated gold pins, actually idk if they are even coated. 3 pins weighs 1 gram and I just tried to grind off the coating and it is still gold. They are from the 80's I believe they are military spec hollingsworth pins. I used to work for a engineering company for 10 years and we manufactured control systems for Nuclear power plants, paper mills, the navy, etc. Heck they may be solid gold. I have a big jar of them.
Nitric acid would be the best option. The pins you speak of are most likely made of brass with gold plate. If the pins have a very heavy gold plate and you have the skill. You could try dipping them in aqua regia for a few minutes. Just long enough to dissolve the gold leaving behind the base metals. If they are magnetic. You could try boiling them in sulfuric acid. Either way I prefer the nitric acid method. Hot nitric acid will destroy most medals. Just be sure to keep any iron out of your reaction.
They are a bright yellow gold. They are not like most of the pins I see on here they are shiny gold beautiful.. If I boil them in sulfuric acid, how would I know when to stop? I am not a chemist such as yourself. Although I know a little
I have the honor of being #1000. I am not a chemist by any stretch but I would say this is a great instructional video. I was actually looking for instructions on turning the non-metallic lead in a lead-acid battery back to metal. Robert Murray Smith did one a few years ago but I think he removed it because too many people were on him about the safety of handling lead. I see quite a few guys doing battery revival videos and the not metallic lead seems to go to an undisclosed location.
Hi nice vid.Brings me back to when i was taking chemistry in school.I wondered though if it might not easier to pick up potassium nitrate from a butcher supply that sells spices and such.Might be a little easier i think.
I agree it would be easier. I have searched around. Extracting potassium nitrate from Spectracide stump remover is cheaper then just buying potassium nitrate. From 6 pounds of Spectracide stump remover you will get 5 pounds of potassium nitrate at a cost of $44.00. Every other source I have found is more expensive and has a shipping cost. With this method it cost about $55.00 per liter of %95+ nitric acid.
Ya i forgot about shipping.I have around 1200 gm of sterling that i melted down so i now i need some nitric acid for the next step.Hence me watching these videos.
@@front2760 it takes about 800 mil of the nitric acid that I make to dissolve 1000 grams of sterling silver. I will be publishing a video demonstrating such in about a week.
@@TT-nh7rx I don't know, you would have to find one that was chemical resistant. You don't need to run this distillation under a vacuum. I just attached a vinyl hose to my vacuum take off adapter and put it directly into my fume hood.
Great video, and intresting, instead of potassium can I use sodium nitrate? A day before of watching your video I got 6 ounces of sodium nitrate from ebay and they called "nitric acid substitute. To be truth I think potassium is stronger. I'll appreciate your answer. Thanks.
Add enough water so that you completely dissolve the kno3. But you want the solution to be saturated so use boiling water. As far as the na2s2o5 is concerned. That is useless for making nitric acid. Save it for precipitating your gold out of aqua regia.
Yes technically the orange color is a contaminant. The orange color is mostly nitrogen dioxide with a small amount of nitrogen trioxide. Both are caused by the decomposition of nitric acid. You can remove the orange color by bubbling dry air through the nitric acid. The orange color does not interfere with any metal refining reactions.
I used 800 grams of potassium nitrate in this batch. A good rule to follow is to use equal amounts of potassium nitrate and sulfuric acid. If anything you should use a excess of sulfuric acid. You can use fertilizer that contains potassium nitrate but I would recommend extracting the potassium nitrate. If you just add sulfuric acid to fertilizer that contains potassium nitrate. The sulfuric acid and the nitric acid that you produce will react with the other chemicals present in the fertilizer. That will diminish your yield.
@@philipbender956 cooking the mixture, of nitrate and acid, to distill off the nitric acid. you showed 2 temperatures, 245 and 315, stop at 316. how long at 245, and then how long at 315?
@@petermpeters I remove from heat once the still reaches 315 degrees. I believe the batch in this video took a round 3 and 1/2 hours to fully distill. Once you reach 315 degrees all of the nitric acid will have been driven off. This will be evident as liquid will stop distilling. You will get a very small amount of liquid that will distill over after 315 degrees up to around 638 degrees. That will mostly be water that has been freed from the sulfuric acid. Then you will distill sulfuric acid around 640 degrees. But the potassium bisulfite that is left over in the flask will most likely foam out of control before you reach that high temperature. Nitric acid will start distilling around 181 degrees. You will get the bulk of your distillate around 250 degrees. There's no set time for the distillation. It's just how long it takes to boil off.
Yes, if you dissolve your gold pleated 925 silver in nitric acid. Depending on the thickness of the gold plating. It may float away as sheets 😉 or glitter gold. I once had a gold foil in the shape of a spoon.
thank you so much! many of the acids used in gold and silver refining is regulated in the philippines.. thats why any info on household product substitutes are very much appreciated...
Sulfuric acid is the best option in this scenario. Because you're starting with sulfuric acid anyway. They do sell a inert joint grease/sealer. Or you could use nothing. The joints will eventually fill themselves once they get moist 😂 It's not like you're distilling under a vacuum where you need a tight seal.
Hey, and when you're done making nitric acid, you can make some corned beef with all that salt peter...couple tea spoons to a brisket, brine for a couple weeks in the fridge.
@@philipbender956 I'm thinking they put pink dye in it so that you don't mistake it for regular salt. In many recipes & cook books it is referred to even as pink salt. It also tells you when the meat is corned(its the only way I can tell) when it turns pink. This is also what gives salami, pepperoni, corned beef, bacon, ham, pastrami etc. their respective pinkish color. I had always assumed that salt peter was pink as a chemical as a result...I definitely learned a lot from this video!
Hey man sreetips tipped me off to ur video and I have watched an studied ur it multiple multiple times and am fixing to attempt it myself have u got any advice? Anything u have learned since the makeing of this video?
Just keep some baking soda handy in case of a spill. Also once you start the reaction don't add anymore chemicals. Drive the reaction to completion and allow the rig to cool completely. Perform this in a well ventilated area. Nitric acid fumes will melt your lungs.
So anyone else that wants to try this DO NOT use lab with any sort of rubber gaskets or seals lol it don’t work out well! I got a buy a new lab. Any recommendations Phillip?
I got thru my first run with several dumb mistakes but I did produce about 200 ml nitric acid I had to rap all rubber seals with aluminum foil to keep them from melting an contaminating my nitric even more
i used to use stump remover for my candy rocket engines then i discovered amazon when I wanted to add powdered aluminum darned if they dont sell it, and potassium nitrate! cheaper also!
They mix some contaminants into the stump remover. something to keep it from caking and something to keep it from absorbing water. Both of those agents could affect the outcome of your nitric acid. It is best to work with pure dry chemicals.
@@philipbender956 potassium bisulfate ,,,,,,thanks Philip I like the video,,,,i am traying to drop some silver with nitric acid,,,,,but skill problem,..........
@@philipbender956 hydrogen perioxide 12% mix with 95% sulfuric acid thus work too,for dissolve base metals?for gold? Thanks first of all for your reaction
O.K. thank you for the chemistry class. very interesting. I doubt it I would be refining gold or silver from computer parts, I have seen your other video and seems quite a lot of work for such a small amount of gold. . But it is interesting. I mix potassium nitrate and sugar to make great smoke bombs.
The aluminum foil will insulate the distillation column. Allowing the nitric acid to boil out much quicker. As it won't be condensing at the top of boiling flask.
@@gayusschwulius8490 yes nitric acid will degrade in UV light. Especially sunlight. My lab is lit by LED lights. So the losses generally minimal if you are making nitric acid indoors.
@@Superdad0726 it will break down fairly quickly in a clear glass bottle in sunlight. If it's in tinted glass or opaque plastic. It should be okay. You can strengthen your nitric acid through distillation.
