Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Nitric Acid

highpower48 - 13-11-2015 at 10:06

Does anyone know of any place near the Charlotte in North Carolina where you can purchase Nitric Acid? I know I can purchase online but the $30.00 hazmat fee makes it real expensive. In future I will make but not at the moment. Thanks.....

annaandherdad - 13-11-2015 at 11:34

I used to live in Charlotte, and in those days you could just order it from any chemical company and UPS would deliver it, including 5 liter bottles, no questions asked. All kinds of other chemicals, too.

Nowadays I'm afraid you have to pay hazmat fees. Maybe the best is to order it in vairly large quantites, (5 liters?) and divide and split the product with other to reduce the hazmat overhead, proportionally speaking.

There's a place around here (Art Chemicals, in San Leandro CA) that apparently will ship to individuals, I'm sure the hazmat is large. But lately I checked they even ship things like oleum. I don't want any oleum, but others might. I don't know what they do about DHS breathing down their neck, someone ordering a lot of oleum and WFNA would look suspicious.

Since I'm close I can drive down there and get stuff OTC. They charge extra for OTC sales, they prefer to ship.

hissingnoise - 13-11-2015 at 11:36

I don't think it's available OTC anywhere now, so it's kinda make it yourself or shell out!


TheAlchemistPirate - 13-11-2015 at 12:40

I heard you can extract it from concrete cleaner, but you might end up having to distill it with sulfuric acid anyways...

ave369 - 13-11-2015 at 14:07

Just buy some stump remover and battery acid. Boil down the battery acid, mix it with stump remover and distill the mixture. You'll get mighty fine nitric acid.

annaandherdad - 13-11-2015 at 14:11

Quote: Originally posted by hissingnoise  
I don't think it's available OTC anywhere now, so it's kinda make it yourself or shell out!



Check this out. Like I said, I live nearby and they do do OTC transactions, but you have to make an appointment and there's a fee. It's less than the hazmat in shipping, however.

http://www.artchemicals.com/Nitric_Acid_70_Technical_p/80702...

Sniffity - 14-11-2015 at 22:38

Might be a long shot, but you could try searching for Cement Cleaners in your local hardware store. Some oddballs contain nitric acid, mixed in with other stuff (phosphoric acid, etc). Could try separating it from there?

See here:
http://miteq.com.au/diy/product-overview-cleaners/