This is my first chemistry related post, so please be easy (: Muriatic/HCL Acid is not to be found in my area. Oddly, not even the non-chain/local hardware stores carry it and not many people build pools on their property in my neck of the woods. Luckily though, I was able to find a single brand of Sulfuric Acid Drain Cleaner, so not all hope is lost, no? So now with my Sulfuric Acid, Table Salt, and dh2o, I am about to make my HCl Solution. However, my experiences are limited to non-hazardous reactions with my ghetto rigs, and thus have some questions about the setup and procedure. I also have UTFSE and Google, without much luck for answering my following questions. I’m sure sources are out there, but finding the terms to search with for these questions to filter out garbage results has proven most difficult.
What shouldn’t the Sulfuric Acid and HCl Gas & Solution interface with. In the past I was simply using 20oz and 2L plastic bottles cut and melted/taped together with PVC Tubing. I am assuming this will not cut it for these types of chemicals. I could probably substitute what the solutions will sit in to a glass alternative such as beer bottles, but will the PVC tubing be adequate for the HCl Gas & Solution since it must be submerged into the solution for bubbling. What about the soda bottle plastic to just HCl Gas?
Could salt grains be added to the Sulfuric Acid (very slowly) to create the HCl Gas? I do have a lab grade Addition Funnel so I do have an alternative to a plastic rig to drip the Sulfuric Acid onto the salts, but it will require a little work to support it without a proper rod and clamps as appose to adding salt grains every second or so.
Should the system be closed to create a pressurized atmosphere of HCl Gas around the dh20 while bubbling or will simply bubbling the dh2o in an open system be adequate for creating a concentrated HCl Solution? How long should it bubble for?
How do I test the concentration of the solution? I’ve taken two years of chem. long long ago in High School, but I did a little googling to come up with the math. I could be horribly wrong for I have no experience to verify this since it is pieced together from many sources, but it is what I could come up with from googling:
1. Do a pH Test
2. Solve for U to get H+ Ion Concentration/Molarity via:
-log(U) = (What the Little Strip Says)pH
3. Since there is one H+ to Cl- ion, U is effectively the Molarity of the HCl solution? So using the Molarity equation, we get - Solve for V:
U Molarity of HCl Solution = V moles of HCl/W Liters of dh2o
4. Grams of HCl - Solve for X:
X Grams of HCl/V moles of HCl = Molecular Weight of HCl
5. Grams of dh2o - Solve for Y
Density of dh2o = Y grams of dh2o/W Liters of dh2o
6. Concentration of HCl in dh2o:
Y grams of dh2o/X Grams of HCl
