Electrochemical prep. of Hydrogen chloride gas

Jimmyfentanyl · Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:24 pm

After noticeing that alot of the reactions to make some of the more interesting compounds requires Hydrogen chloride gas, something that us Australian bees have trouble obtaining because of restrictions brought about by by the war on drugs (freedom). I decided to find a good synth that does not require watched chemicals.

What you will need is:
300ml of dry Hexane
20g of alluminum foil pieces
200g of Epsom salts
1000ml of cold water
5.95g of pickling salt

Summary: Hydroger chloride can be prepared using electrochemical methods. It can be prepared by first, electrolysing a mixture of Epsom salts and pickling salt, and then passing the gas mixture produced into a mixture of dry Hexane containing alluminum foil pieces. The aluminium foil acts as a catalyst, causing hydrogen gas to combine with chlorine gas, forming hydrogen chloride.

By-products: from the reaction are oxygen gas.

Hazards: Use caution when handling chlorine gas, which is toxic- avoid inhalation. And extinguish all flames when working with hexane or BOOM.

Setup: Into a three necked RB flask, put a condenser into the middle adapter, standing up. And into the two side holes place a lead electrode into each, one negative and one positive. Immerse the RB flask in a cold water bath. From the top of the condenser add a drying tube which is the added a plastic tube which is then attached to a three nick type vacume adapter attached to a stean tube into another RB flask, this one with one neck so the gas produced comes out the hole where you would normally attach the vacume on the vac adapter. From this spot a drying tube is attached to collect any moisture and release the Hydrogen chloride gas.

Procedure: Into the single necked RB flask with steam inlet tube add 300ml of dry Hexane and 20g of aluminium foil pieces. And desolve 200g of Epsom salts into 1000ml of cold water, and thereafter, add and dissolve 95g of pickling salt. Now pour this salt solution into the three necked RB flask , and then electrolysis the mixture at 6 to 12 volt at 6 to 12 amp for a period ranging from 12 to 18 hours. During the electrolysis prosess, a moderate, yet steady stream of chlorine gas (mixed with hydrogen and oxygen) will steadily evolve and be carried over. As the gas mixture of hydrogen, oxyger, and chlorine is evolved from the electrolysis, the gas mixture is bubbled into a mixture of Hexane containing aluminium foil pieces. The aluminium foil acts as a catalyst, causing the hydrogen to combine with the chlorine without violence, forming a steady stream of Hydrogen chloride. This hydrogen chloride can be used directly or dissolved in water to produce hydrochloric acid.

Note: This operation should be carried out in a room with no windows, and/or direct sunlight. If sunlight, magnesium light or light from a UV lamp reaches the reaction the flask or container will EXPLODE!

IndoleAmine · Dreamreader Deluxe

Messing with hydrogen and chlorine isn't necessary for making HCl, at least if you can get either sulfuric or hydrochloric. Ok ozbees don't seem to have H2SO4 sometimes, but muriatic should be available, no?

Because you can also drip muriatic onto CaCl2 to generate HCl gas...
(concrete cleaner + "damp rid"/similar for example, thats the most otc variant I can think of)

Or simply boil concentrated HCl, it will give off (moist) HCl gas until concentration is lowered below 20% w/w...

If you can't get HCl, you probably live in a totally fucked up country and/or shouldn't attempt any synthesis at all, since hydrochloric is indeed essential for many things in chemistry... Very Happy

(and as a last resort, you could always puke into your car battery.. Laughing

)

i_a

Elementary · Wed Apr 20, 2005 6:38 pm

You could just perform electrolysis on brine (sodium chloride solution) and combine the two gasses (Hydrogen & Chlorine) evolved with activated charcoal to form hydrogen chloride.
The electrodes could be graphite rods taken from batterys.