I need ferric nitrate in order to etch silver, I was told that I could make it by combining nitric acid and iron filings. Now from what I've read, this appears to be true, but what I don't know, is what proportions and conditions I need to create ferric nitrate.Does anybody know what those are?

Proportions: Enter formula here, the measurements are in grams. http://theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/MSP/BalanceReactions

Conditions: Room temperature, outside.

 

Where do you intend to get nitric acid?

Reaction of iron with nitric acid will give rise to rather nasty oxides of nitrogen as by-products.

At the very least, you need to do that reaction outside away from people.

 

Also, if i remember rightly, conc nitric passivates iron so you would need to dilute the acid first.

You need to use an excess of nitric acid in order to ensure that the iron is all oxidised to Fe(III) and also to enssure that the solution is strongly acidic or you will get hydrolysis products.

What do you want ferric nitrate for?

What do you want ferric nitrate for?

To etch silver, I said that in my first post, but thanks for the replies

To etch silver, I said that in my first post, but thanks for the replies

Doh! One day I will learn to read.

 

If you can get nitric acid then you can use that to etch silver.

f you can get nitric acid then you can use that to etch silver.

How do you do that? Same methods or something different?

I've never tried it as a etchant, but nitric acid will certainly attack silver. I'm not sure what you would use as a resist.

It seems some experimentation is in order.

Ok, so I combined nitric acid(70%) and iron filings, in a beaker, when agitated it would give off relatively small amounts of orange smoke. Then I put it on a hot plate and heated it to 160 degrees farenheit, the solution started bubbling, first emitting large amounts of orange smoke, then a constant stream of white smoke. I took it off the hotplate in order to prevent it from reaching its boiling point of 180 degrees, at this point it was a black gel. When agitated, this gel remained inert, so I was advised to rehydrate it with distilled water, which I did, I then put it back on the hotplate and reheated it to 160 degrees, it emitted an almost constant stream of white smoke and occaisionally a puff of orange smoke. When the smoke stopped, I was left with a a brownish powder caked at the bottom of the flask. Ferric Nitrate is supposed to be white crystals, not a brown powder, does anybody know why this happened?

Hydrolysis? FeCl3 is known to hydrolyze. I quote from the magical Wiki: "When dissolved in water, iron(III) chloride undergoes hydrolysis and gives off heat in an exothermic reaction. The resulting brown, acidic, and corrosive solution..."

I think you may want to try recrystallizing. I've never worked with nitric acid or iron compounds before, but recrystallization might help.

Also, as John said, nitric acid is going to be as good as ferric nitrate for etching silver.

Reaction of iron with nitric acid will give rise to rather nasty oxides of nitrogen as by-products.

At the very least, you need to do that reaction outside away from people.

 

Also, if i remember rightly, conc nitric passivates iron so you would need to dilute the acid first.

You need to use an excess of nitric acid in order to ensure that the iron is all oxidised to Fe(III) and also to ensure that the solution is strongly acidic or you will get hydrolysis products.

What do you want ferric nitrate for?

Ok, so I combined nitric acid(70%) and iron filings, in a beaker, when agitated it would give off relatively small amounts of orange smoke. Then I put it on a hot plate and heated it to 160 degrees farenheit, the solution started bubbling, first emitting large amounts of orange smoke, then a constant stream of white smoke. I took it off the hotplate in order to prevent it from reaching its boiling point of 180 degrees, at this point it was a black gel. When agitated, this gel remained inert, so I was advised to rehydrate it with distilled water, which I did, I then put it back on the hotplate and reheated it to 160 degrees, it emitted an almost constant stream of white smoke and occaisionally a puff of orange smoke. When the smoke stopped, I was left with a a brownish powder caked at the bottom of the flask. Ferric Nitrate is supposed to be white crystals, not a brown powder, does anybody know why this happened?

 

The ferric nitrate definitely decomposed. At such high temperatures (180 degrees), a solution of ferric nitrate will decompose (hydrolyse), producing ferric oxides, ferric basic nitrates, and nitrogen oxides.

 

A lot of transitional metal nitrates (copper, iron, etc) are very sensitive to the combination of water and high temperatures, and will decompose. The correct way to prepare hydrated iron (III) nitrate is by combining hydrogen peroxide (dilute nitric acid will not oxidise iron (II) to iron (III) easily), excess dilute nitric acid, and iron without heating, then evaporate (not boil) the resulting solution. The anhydrous nitrate is a strong nitrating agent, and prepared by combining liquid N2O4 with iron.

 

You don't need iron (III) nitrate to etch silver. Nitric acid works much better. Hot, concentrated nitric acid attacks silver vigorously. Even dilute nitric acid will etch silver slowly when heated. Other things (such as a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar) etches silver as well.

Hmmmmm, every time I dissolve iron granules in HNO3, I use conc nitric first, let it sizzle, then when it slows down, I add some heat, then it sizles more. let it sit overnight . Then, I have just a few granules left- I decant, then add just a tad more of conc nitric. Looks great every time. Brown/amber, clear solution.

I am an artist from Italy doing various stuff with metal etching recently after buying our etching equipments from etchcut,

They have given us a formula for silver etching, it works really well for us, so am sharing with you all

60% nitric acid with H2O

ratio 1: 3

Temperature : 38 degree C

We have a bought a rapid etcher which is a vertical spray etching machine , it sprays the chemical with equal pressure thus give equal and fast etching always

I would also like to add that for etching silver you need a coating which should be string enough to hold it till you get the depth in silver, We are using their resist only as it comes along with the equipment but they said it is commonly available

earlier I use to make Silver etched jewellery in 3-4 days now with help of exposure and rapid etcher i complete my job in one hour

Caution: Nitric creates hazardous fumes, keep your protective gears on while using nitric acid

Hope this info helps

Alice