I was spoiled, we had proper Litmus paper

Yes, I had some of that too (my dad bought two chemistry sets from US of A since they didn't sell them anywhere in Finland).

sound like you had a cool dad!

 

I know that if ever we`re blessed with having kids, they`ll have the Chemistry Set from HELL! ))

 

 

Muhahahahahahaaa

Well, my dad's a psychiatrist and usually is somewhere all the time in conferences or the like (it's starting to get hard to name a country he hasn't been to).

 

And if you're anxious to have kids, you can adopt me if you'd like to. Lol

so if i use concentrated sulphuric acid there will be very little water? if so i might as well use concentrated sulphuric acid and dilute the nitric acid when its done that way it will be much simpler and a lot less hasle

I think that's a good idea, just remember to first pour the water, then the acid. I also think it's way more simple to dilute near 100% acids with water than mess around with 60% or 70%.

just remember to first pour the water, then the acid

 

Lots of sulphuric acid + little water = BOOM !

Lots of water + Little sulphuric acid = Dilution

 

But does that still hold for nitric acid ?

yt if you are still here what temperature should i heat the solution somebody else said 150c which seems way to much to me and i have read some where else which gave a very short discription that you should heat it about 80-90c which one is it or is it non of the above and another temperature

Hmm... The boiling point of 50%-70% nitric acid is about 122 C. So I bet you could concentrate it by boiling it with about the 80-90 C you mentioned.

no im talking about the potassium nitrate/sulphuric acid solution to make nitric acid what temperature should that be heated with the sulphuric acid about 98% concentrated is it 150c 80-90c or another temperature, im not going to concentrate the 38% nitric acid from http://www.growell.co.uk because it might have impurites and to get rid of the impurites as well as concentrating it you will need sulphuric acid and to distill it it works out cheaper just to make your own from potassium nitrate and sulphuric acid

youll want around 150 celcius i'd imagine

Given a particular temperature, how exactly do you plan to maintain it ? I don't think its all thateasy a task to stick to a range of less than 15 degrees or so

im sure the acid will decompose around 150c so i dont think it would be that i suppose i could heat it around 100c and wait untill the gasses form and keep it on 100c

so about 90c-110c

I don't think sulfuric will decompose until 250, but I still don't recommend using over 200 C heat.

we need yt to answer this then

so heat the mixture any where between 80-120c then is that ok

if you use conc sulphuric, it`ll start to react before heating!

maintan a good 86c no more than 90c and you`ll get the real deal! above 100c and you`ll get water in there, but still a very respectable conc of Nitric!

thats brilliant thank you and i am going to use concentrated sulphuric acid

what is the minium concentration of sulphuric acid that could be used to make nitric acid

because if 60-70% conc could be used then it would be more safer

there is no minimum. the displacement ions if present, will do the exchange regardless, it just means you`ll get less

 

 

it works Ion for Ion, so even if you only had ONE ion, it would work, but don`t expect to get a strong Nitric acid, there`s no such thing as something for nothing or a "Free Lunch"

I think David Hahn made his own HNO3 the same way you're trying to make it. He used it to isolate uranium from pitchblende, though not too successfully.

I think David Hahn made his own HNO3 the same way you're trying to make it. He used it to isolate uranium from pitchblende, though not too successfully.

not surprising really though, when you consider there`s so many compounds in pitch blende that will displace uranium, his best bet would have been to make "mud/sludge" with it in plain water and centrifuge it 1`st, the lowest layer being the heaviest elements/compounds, then isolate them and treat accordingly, the Nitric stage is one of the very last stages

well i have put an order through for my glassware and ill use 70-80% conc that should be enough and i know 1 mole of 70% sulphuric acid weighs 83g so ill use 202g of KNO3 plus 83g of HNO3 and heat about 80-90c great