16MillionEyes
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Hardware store quality
I recently got a pint of allegedly Sulfuric Acid. The problem is that I have no idea of the concentration and the company that produces it gives no
MSDS either.
The product is named Hot Power drain cleaner by Comstar. It's an amber color (yes, It's not pure Sulfuric acid that's why I'm asking this) and it
doesn't really say anything else besides plenty of warnings but no chemical information.
I've been trying to find the exact composition of this product to see if I should use it or what I should do. Can you guys give me any suggestions?
Should I use it? Perhaps any ideas where I might find out its MSDS? Email the manufacturer? Is it even useful?
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Organikum
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Weigh 100ml of it and you will know....
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woelen
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If weighing 100 ml of acid accurately is a problem for you, then another nice test is to add a few ml of drain cleaner to a spatula full of solid dry
table salt. If it starts bubbling and heats up a little, then you have acid of at least 90% concentration. The bubbles are HCl-gas, which strongly
fumes when brought in contact with even only mildly humid air.
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Elawr
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Another quick and dirty test is to add 10-15cc of your suspected H2S04 to an equal volume of ordinary cane sugar. Good, high-test H2SO4 will soak into
the pile of sugar and at first do nothing. Then after a latent period of anywhere from seconds to several minutes, the mixture will start heating up
and turning brown. Then it will turn black, start bubbling, and quickly swell up into a spongy, smoking mass of carbon giving off much heat and fumes
of toxic SO2. Dilute acid won't do this.
To be safe use caution handling the acid, it will react to your skin in a manner not unlike what it does to the sugar. The reaction gives off copious
sulfurous fumes so must be done in vent hood or outdoors. When finished, dilute the reaction mixture with lots of H20 before disposing.
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S.C. Wack
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But all this does not say what organic and inorganic chemicals may be present. I suspect that drain cleaner is a "value-added" disposal technique for
spent acid.
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evil_lurker
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It has been my experience that hardware store sulfuric acid is full of surfactants, buffers, and all sorts of other nasties that make it useless for
many synths.
However, it will dry HCl and other gasses, albeit with a lot of foaming depending on the brand.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in
beer.
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woelen
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My experience is that drain cleaner sulphuric acid is quite good. We have a brand called "Mega ontstopper" (Mega drain cleaner), which is 98% H2SO4
and only is very pale brown. I tested this with sensitive tests for iron (diluting, and adding a solution of a mix of yellow prussiate of potash and
red prussiate of potash) and no blue color is formed.
A test with very small amounts of KMnO4 also is negative on organics. In pure acid, a very small amount (only 0.1 cubic mm) of KMnO4, finely powdered,
dissolves in acid, giving a green solution of Mn2O7, or MnO3(+) ion. Even very small amounts of organics remove the typical green color and make the
solution turbid and brown. This is a nice test for organics.
I don't know what the pale brown color is, it may be very finely divided carbon, but I'm not sure about that.
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16MillionEyes
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I'll try some of your tests. I am aware that it contains buffers to protect the metal plumbing but I really have no idea what effect it has on its
usage. I have a feeling I've lost my money on this one, next time I'll just the muriatic acid. At least that one is pure.
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16MillionEyes
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Oh by the way, being how toxic all the tests submitted are I think it'd be a while before I get a place where to test its acidity (I live in an
apartment).
What do you recommend for its handling anyway? What kind of globes? Would regular latex serve of any protection?
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woelen
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Do the HCl-test near an open window. If you only use a spatula full of NaCl, then the amount of HCl produced only is small, and even in your
appartment that would not be a real concern. Do not regard this message as a general property of all toxic gases. There are toxic gases, for which
even a miniature spatula of corresponding solid would scare me, but with HCl this is not the case.
The test with sugar requires larger volumes of sugar and acid. That is something you definitely must not do inside your apartment.
Handling H2SO4 can be done with thick latex gloves. If some acid is spilled on the gloves, quickly rinse away with water and then it will not reach
your skin. Even if a spot remains unnoticed for some time, it still will not go to your skin immediately.
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12AX7
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Chemical-resistant gloves are another possibility, if very limiting in dexterity. Nitrile gloves are also made in latex-style thinness and offer
different properties than latex.
Tim
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youngOne
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Chemical-resistant gloves are another possibility, Thats true wouldnt spill any of that on you. At school they do an acid test. Where they poor some
sulphuric into a dish then drop a rag on it, within seconds it eats the rag up like nothing else.
how does one get the weight??
Sulfuric acid
96% H2SO4
Strongly corrosive, dense, oily liquid; colorless to dark brown depending on purity.
Molar mass = 98.078 g/mol
CAS No. [7664-93-9]
Boiling point 330°C
Density (96%, 20°C) 1.84 g/mL
Soluble in water (Caution! Development of heat)
pH value (20°C): strongly acid
[Edited on 11-5-2007 by youngOne]
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16MillionEyes
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Thanks for the advice. Some guy down the lab also told me to put some cloth material inside the latex gloves just in case it goes through I have
enough time to take it off.
I hate not being able to even determine the concentration via titration. Everything that is required is not possible to get or have. I'm even afraid
to even mess with it inside the apartment becuase I don't want to spill on my chlothes, skin or anything that might react to it.
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