Hawkguy - 7-11-2015 at 16:51
Hello. I recently bought Sulfuric Acid at the store, liquid FIRE brand, but now it contains an additive called 'Rodine'. Apparently an acid inhibitor,
I couldn't find and good information online about what it is and how it will interfere with reactions. Any ideas?
EDIT: The bottle it came in is for drain opener, and the packaging was souped up like some sort of extra spicy hot sauce (ie: WARNING! Liquid fire
will cause acid explosions in drain and will eat through ANYTHING. The chemicals will react creating extreme heat, and acid fire may splash out of
drains! Extreme caution advised! Death or serious injury may occur.)
[Edited on 8-11-2015 by Hawkguy]
JJay - 7-11-2015 at 17:03
I've seen that brand a few times but suspected it might be inferior quality and never bought it. It's cheap, so if it works well in reactions or there
is a way to purify it, I'd be interested in knowing about it.
gdflp - 7-11-2015 at 17:23
It appears that Rodine is a mixture of alkylpyridines and N,N'-diethylthiourea, it claims that it protects steel and copper against corrosion from
sulfuric acid, source. I don't see an obvious reason right now, perhaps someone can see what I'm missing? A distillation would remove it, though my
understanding is that distilling sulfuric acid is a major PITA.
cyanureeves - 7-11-2015 at 19:12
i've made killer nitric acid with liquid fire.
UC235 - 7-11-2015 at 23:40
It's always been in there as far as I know. They may indicate it on the label now, but it was on the MSDS I checked years ago when I purchased a
gallon. It's only present at maybe 0.1-0.5% It's in there to lessen corrosion to metal pipes when it's used for its intended purpose.
It's fine for most uses. I've used it anywhere I am distilling the product away from the acid or running an additional purification step. Alkyl
bromides, bromine, dioxane synthesis, nitric acid, HCl generators, alkyl nitrite prep and many more have all gone smoothly using it. I keep a bottle
of higher grade (and more expensive) acid from duda diesel around when the sulfuric is intimately involved with the final reaction products, as in
the hydrolysis of butanone azine to hydrazine sulfate.