Sciencemadness Discussion Board - HCl (32%) available in the UK

HCl (32%) available in the UK

AWLB - 26-7-2015 at 09:13

Hydrochloric acid (HCl) is a chemical vital to many chemical reactions in both organic and inorganic chemistry. However, this chemical is becoming harder to purchase in high concentrations.

Recently in the United Kingdom I have seen 32%/10 molar HCl for sale sold as "Spirits of Salt". The product had a very good price of only £2.99 for 500ml, in "Homebase". The hydrochloric acid had a colorless appearance and was quite pure, containing only a small amount of suspected iron impurity.

The hydrochloric acid can be purified by heating in a flask, and with a delivery tube, bubbling the HCl gas into distilled water. I also found mixing with dry ethanol (to dry ethanol read my "Anhydrous MgSO4" post) reduced HCl gas solubility and again this gas could be transferred into distilled water.

CAUTION! 32% HCl is highly corrosive and fumes in warm and moist air.
HCl gas is extremely corrosive to body tissue including eyes, lungs and skin. (wear gloves and goggles when handling the above materials and have Na2CO3 nearby to neutralise any spillages)

Thank you for reading.

aga - 26-7-2015 at 09:18

500ml of 32% for 3 quid sounds good.

Here in Spain every supermarket sells it as 'strong water' in 5 litre jugs for about the same price, although at 20 w%.

No iron contamination either (that i can detect).

[Edited on 26-7-2015 by aga]

AWLB - 26-7-2015 at 09:49

Spanish hydrochloric acid sounds even better aga! The iron contamination is quite annoying in some particular experiments, such as preparing MnCl2 from MnO2 and HCl. The product (MnCl2) should of course be a light pink but often turns out dark green/brown. Do you if it is iron contamination that causes this ?

Thank you for commenting, I have just joined Sciencemadness.org.

aga - 26-7-2015 at 10:12

Welcome to the Madness !

Personally i have not done anything much with Manganese compounds, so cannot be relied on to comment.

Green/brown certainly sounds like iron cations (FeCl₂ and FeCl₃ being the resulting salts).

You can test for iron with potassium hexaferrocyanate solution.
Just dissolve a bit in water and add a few drops to a very small sample of your acid.

If it immediately gives a dark blue colour, you got Fe2+ or Fe3+ cations knocking about.

If you wish to test for just the Fe3+ cation, use ammonium thiocyanate solution.
It goes blood red, but only with Fe3+.

On a general note, some people here get annoyed with anything that carries no reference material, such as a link to a procedure etc. unless it is posted in Beginnings or Whimsy.

You can post what you like in those two topics with very little fear, and still get answers from the astoundingly experienced members of this forum.

[Edited on 26-7-2015 by aga]

AWLB - 26-7-2015 at 10:32

Thank you very much for the warm welcome (I believe I am already addicted to Sciencemadness).
Also thank you very much for giving me those two tests for Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions, I will use it to evaluate my hydrochloric acid's iron content.

I apologize for posting without sources, my sources/references were my own experimentation and research.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my posts.

Corrosive Joeseph - 26-7-2015 at 10:47

And thank you for posting them.

Much appreciated.

This should help people find it in-store....................

http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/challs-international...

AWLB - 26-7-2015 at 10:53

Thank you very much "Corrosive Joseph", I didn't think of adding link to the website.
Have you had experience with this HCl, have you also noticed the presence of Fe2+/Fe3+ ions or was it the fault of my other reagents.
Thank you again for spending the time to read my post and adding to my post by providing the link to the product on the Homebase website.

Corrosive Joeseph - 26-7-2015 at 16:24

Quote: Originally posted by AWLB

Thank you very much "Corrosive Joseph", I didn't think of adding link to the website.
Have you had experience with this HCl, have you also noticed the presence of Fe2+/Fe3+ ions or was it the fault of my other reagents.
Thank you again for spending the time to read my post and adding to my post by providing the link to the product on the Homebase website.

No, l have no experience with that product but l've been on the lookout for an OTC source and this looks promising.

Keep up the good work....................

kecskesajt - 27-7-2015 at 01:20

You can't uber Hungarian prices

5 liter of 30% HCl : 4$
5 l 95% tech. grade H2SO4 : 5.50 $
5 l 50 % HNO3 : 2.5 $
25 kg NaOH : 30$
1l C3H6O : 3.20$
Alcohol is quite pricie,1 liter is 3.60$
1 kg NaHCO3 1.30$

AWLB - 27-7-2015 at 02:08

Those prices look very good! I might have to visit Hungary one day

tsathoggua1 - 6-2-2017 at 03:49

Be cautious. That brand, I know the one you speak of, and there is another product, an acidic descaler/cleaner, that is 54% HCOOH.

Just a heads up lest anybody want to produce HCl(g) by dehydrating using conc. H2SO4 etc. Because dehydration of conc. formic produces CO. Would be a nasty surprise to get carbon monoxide when expecting HCl.

Also, pay cash. Homebase and B&Q snitch happily and voluntarily.

[Edited on 6-2-2017 by tsathoggua1]

Chlorine - 6-2-2017 at 06:30

Over in the states HCl is normally under the name of "Mutiatic acid" Its normally about 31-32% for $5 a gallon.