Sciencemadness Discussion Board - Liquid Fire Drain Cleaner

Liquid Fire Drain Cleaner

sargent1015 - 30-11-2012 at 17:33

Hey guys,

I've seen this mentioned in old threads and I was wondering what others thought of this brand for OTC sulfuric acid. My battery grade supply is running out and I was wondering if anyone had experience with it/finding it.

If not this one, anyone have a brand they "trust"?

In addition, is there an OTC form of HBr? Or I guess I'll just plan on making it with the sulfuric acid.

Mailinmypocket - 30-11-2012 at 17:47

Quote: Originally posted by sargent1015

Hey guys,

I've seen this mentioned in old threads and I was wondering what others thought of this brand for OTC sulfuric acid. My battery grade supply is running out and I was wondering if anyone had experience with it/finding it.

If not this one, anyone have a brand they "trust"?

In addition, is there an OTC form of HBr? Or I guess I'll just plan on making it with the sulfuric acid.

I have used "Clear line" sulfuric acid. It is dyed red (but not all that much, more of a light pink) but does not contain inhibitors, which is a good thing!. Here is what it looks like, next to some ACS grade sulfuric for comparison. The clear line stuff has worked for everything I needed it to so far and I never use the ACS grade believe it or not, unless it is for very sensitive chemistry. Clear line should work just fine for HBr synthesis

ScienceHideout - 30-11-2012 at 18:52

I prefer Rooto. It is incredibly clear, only has a slight brown tint. Titrated to approx. 96%!

UnintentionalChaos - 30-11-2012 at 19:18

Liquid fire is fine. It contains a fraction of a percent of alkylpyridine inhibitors, but this does very little for it's usefulness. I've used it for numerous syntheses where there is some purification step before the final product is isolated.

elementcollector1 - 30-11-2012 at 19:31

Quote: Originally posted by ScienceHideout

I prefer Rooto. It is incredibly clear, only has a slight brown tint. Titrated to approx. 96%!

Mine seems rather oily. Is this because the viscosity of sulfuric acid is different than water, or is there something added?

Vargouille - 30-11-2012 at 20:42

Sulfuric acid is more viscous than water. According to Wiki, the viscosity of H2SO4 is 26.7 cP, while that of water is 1.0 cP. Higher value for cP, more viscous the liquid is. Also, H2SO4 was called the "oil of vitriol", so it stands to reason that it would be fairly viscous.

elementcollector1 - 30-11-2012 at 22:55

Quote: Originally posted by Vargouille

Sulfuric acid is more viscous than water. According to Wiki, the viscosity of H2SO4 is 26.7 cP, while that of water is 1.0 cP. Higher value for cP, more viscous the liquid is. Also, H2SO4 was called the "oil of vitriol", so it stands to reason that it would be fairly viscous.

True enough. I'm always worried about contaminants in OTC reagents...

Liquid Fire

cal - 1-12-2012 at 08:20

Quote: Originally posted by sargent1015

I use hydrogen peroxide to clean the liquid fire sulfuric acid by freezing 250 ml hydrogen peroxide over night then turn the bottle upside down and catch the first 10 drops and add to 400 ml liquid fire and heat for 1 hour. Filter this through a fretted disk funnel.
I have used this acid for almost all my reactions with no problems what so ever. :cool:

MrHomeScientist - 3-12-2012 at 06:36

I use liquid fire too and have never had any issues. Especially if you dilute it down to use for "normal" acid work, the color really isn't a big deal. I have also tried adding peroxide (carefully!) to decolorize it with some success on test tube scale, but have never scaled it up. It's a bit scary to be making pirahna solution!

sargent1015 - 3-12-2012 at 08:08

Quote: Originally posted by MrHomeScientist

It's a bit scary to be making pirahna solution!

I agree with that! Anyways, I'll see what the hardware store has.

Thanks everyone for your responses!

SM2 - 3-12-2012 at 08:51

Quote: Originally posted by ScienceHideout

I prefer Rooto. It is incredibly clear, only has a slight brown tint. Titrated to approx. 96%!

Wholeheartedly agreed. R00t0 is the best OTC H2S04. Years ago we had to deal with brown shit, which wasn't bad, but this ROOTO is as good or better than technical grade.

Hexavalent - 3-12-2012 at 09:01

Can de-colourizing carbon be used to remove the colour from sulfuric acid, or will it just end up becoming a horrible colloid? My current stuff is a bright red colour, which is not a problem for syntheses but means nearly all of my products have a slight pink tinge to them...