Productive disposal of Nitric acid.

[Seymour]

So for the second time in a year I've had a small crack form in a container of 70% HNO3. Last time this happened a wild cat or possum had knocked it off a shelf in my shed. I reacted it with copper, seemed like a great idea. Now I'm storing copper nitrate solution and don't find it terribly useful. Indeed I recently tried to use some by adding Zinc to precipitate out copper metal, which at the very least has the property of being a fine pink metal powder which is cool that it was precipitated from aqueous solution.

But oh boy I forgot that temperature breaks Copper nitrate down in to nitric acid, which reacted with the zinc to form nitrogen dioxide. So I got a fuming mess of brown gasses and no pretty pink powder.

Anyway, I'm not keen to make Copper nitrate this time.

Any ideas? I want it to be useful or a novelty, but not HE, and not KNO3, Ba(NO3)2 ext. Sr(NO3) MAYBE because I have very little of it, but I also rarely use it. The container is nearly empty, only a few litres tops.

Alternatively if you can tell me how to use Copper nitrate productively that would work too. I do love reacting the two. So much pretty!

Edited December 30, 2016 by Seymour

[Seymour]

So far I've been told I need more Strontium benzoate to try in a whistle composition. For this I'll need Sr(NO3)2. Looks like this is my favourite so far.

Update: SrCO3 that I'm willing to use is used up, but not HNO3.

Edited December 30, 2016 by Seymour

[NeighborJ]

strontium benzoate,strontium salisylate- that would be something id like to see. Red whistle rockets. Mabe use chlorinated paraffin as the plegmatizer? My intrest is piqued. If it will work it may be something id be intrested in. Time to pull out the old chemistry set.

Ive seen some pretty red stars made with srbenzo too.

[DavidF]

I'm a big fan of flash cotton, and I've used the 70% nitric to make it. Of course, the nitric acid is combined with sulfuric acid. It's not fun to make, but the product is a lot of fun. Some folks might call it an HE, but I don't know if the stuff made with 70% would qualify.

 

You might use it to make some sodium nitrate. Pirotex' beautiful gold glitter seems like a worthy use for the nitrate.

[Seymour]

I use Ammonium nitrate and Sulphuric for nitrations including guncotton, which I'm a big fan of. I prefer stronger nitration mixes to more easily achieve higher nitration levels so it burns cleanly, though I know that you can make decent stuff with 70% nitric. Anyway, enough of that...

 

It's never fun when you light it in your hand and it does not burn instantly and cleanly ha ha.

Sodium nitrate is far too cheap and easy to buy for me to be interested in making it.

I'm getting mighty tempted to pour it on some basic material like limestone or concrete (rubble type, not a pavement) and be done with it.

This stuff is over 12 years old and I've got plenty of new 70%, which I cannot say I've fully figured out why I got it other than "it was cheap in bulk and I was buying other things from the place".

[Carbon796]

lead nitrate ?

[Seymour]

Been there, done that. I did not enjoy making it. Now I have purchased Lead nitrate of nice high purity.

It's all been added to Strontium carbonate. The product will be recrystallised and then turned in to Strontium benzoate.

This can sit on a shelf dedicated to somewhat rare and exotic and -not that useful- chemicals that are in theory relevant to pyro

[taiwanluthiers]

Is there any issue with dumping it into a sink?

 

Conc. Sulfuric acid is used as drain cleaners so I can't see why it's wrong to pour it into the sink provided the amount isn't excessive and that the acid has been strongly diluted. We flush Hydrochloric and sulphuric acid down the drain all the time.

[MrB]

Not sure about anywhere else, but, here it's illegal to wash sulfuric acid and the likes down the drain as drain cleaner. It's still done, and the water purification plant has no issues dealing with it, it's just mentioned a couple of times yearly when there is some article in a newspaper, that they see it, they know it happens, and they deal with it, automatically. How, i have no idea.

B!

[Mumbles]

Strong nitric acid will attack copper and other metal pipes. If you honestly want to dispose of an acid, you should neutralize it first and not be irresponsible and just pour it down the drain. Strong acids have their place for drain clearing purposes, but that's not disposal.

[lloyd]

It's easy to neutralize. Any carbonate will do it effectively (with GREAT evolution of CO2!).

 

Lloyd

[MrB]

Strong nitric acid will attack copper and other metal pipes. If you honestly want to dispose of an acid, you should neutralize it first and not be irresponsible and just pour it down the drain. Strong acids have their place for drain clearing purposes, but that's not disposal.

 

There is nothing but plastic in the buildings, and "most" the ground here. Well, unless you talk really old plumbing, where it might be cast iron for the waste water. All the PVC pipes go to cement cubes, something like a couple of meters, in a cube shape, from which it is piped to the waste water purification plant in "smaller" cement, and plastic, piping. At some level i suppose the acid will react with the cement, but it has pretty much constant flow with all the different sources of wastewater, so i think it would be to diluted at that point, to be harmful to the cement.

That said, i do agree, it is so easy to use baking soda or something with (lots of) carbonates in it.

 

It's easy to neutralize. Any carbonate will do it effectively (with GREAT evolution of CO2!).

 

Great. Now you make me want to try mixing it with something to make a rigid foam. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get hold of proper acids in Sweden these days? Thanks a lot... ;- )

B!