Yes your best bet with distilling nitric acid is no thermometer unless you have a viton seal. Otherwise just stick a stopper in the top of the
stillhead. Use sulfuric acid to seal the joints and if feeding gas to a secondary vessel to make dilute acid use a good resistant tubing, PTFE tubing
works but is very rigid and due to its non-stick properties really doesn't want to stay on the gas outlet.
Nitric acid will eat everything. You should store it in a resistant bottle with a PTFE sealed lid or glass stoppered bottle.
I know a lab in the city that gets tons of stuff in PTFE bottles, different sizes, they transfer out of the bottles into their storage and chuck the
bottles. One of the employees told me to ask if I could have some when the lab starts running again. |