Help— I just bought some concentrated chemicals in crystal or powder
form for my school…trying to save a buck here and there. The
company has no on the mixture percentage or the method of
mixing so that I will end up with an etching solution. Can anyone
help or direct me somewhere for more The chemicals are:
Ferric Chloride anhydrous, Technical, Powder Ferric Nitrate
nonahydrate, Technical, Crystal,Fe 13.6% min. I know to mix with
distilled water. Any help will be appreciated… Jan Harrell
in humid,hot Houston.
Help--- I just bought some concentrated chemicals in crystal or powder form The chemicals aRe: Ferric Chloride anhydrous, Technical, Powder Ferric Nitrate nonahydrate, Technical, Crystal,Fe 13.6% min.
G’day; I can’t help with percentages/quantities, but when
dissolving any chemical salt, the following procedure is usual in
laboratories. Pour a little warm (hand hot) water into a suitable
vessel - glass is best, but plastic will do. Add the chemical very
slowly with constant stirring, then add a little more of the water
and stir until all the chemical is dissolved, and allow to cool.
Finally pour the solution into a measure and add room temperature
water until the total volume is achieved according to requirements.
Keep in a clean stoppered bottle (no metal caps) and LABEL PROPERLY -
most important. Keep in a cupboard and away from children. The
reason for having a little of the water in the mixing vessel at the
start is to avoid a hard clump forming which is then difficult to
dissolve. It is very important that everything in your place be
labelled clearly, from tomato sauce to potassium cyanide (but not in
the same cupboard!) - and the date is often useful too. – Cheers now,
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua Nelson NZ
Help--- I just bought some concentrated chemicals in crystal or powder form for my school...trying to save a buck here and there. The company has no on the mixture percentage or the method of mixing so that I will end up with an etching solution. Can anyone help or direct me somewhere for more The chemicals aRe: Ferric Chloride anhydrous, Technical, Powder Ferric Nitrate nonahydrate, Technical, Crystal,Fe 13.6% min. I know to mix with distilled water. Any help will be appreciated... Jan Harrell in humid,hot Houston.
Jan: As a former clinical biochemist at Baylor perhaps I can help. Ed
Katz, G.G. 15434 Rio Plaza, Houston 77083 (713) 568-5072
Hi Jan! Long time, no see. When you dissolve anhydrous Ferric
Chloride, it generates a lot of heat. So, ALWAYS add the Ferric
Chloride slowly to the water, while stirring gently. The Ferric
Nitrate is already hydrated, (nonahydrate) so it will not generate
much heat when it dissolves. But just for consistency, add it to water
slowly with stirring also. Since the Ferric Chloride is “pure”, if
your recipe calls for, say a 20% solution, dissolve 20 grams of F.C.
in about 80 cc of water. After it is dissolved, add enough water to
make a total of 100 cc of solution. Since the Ferric Nitrate already
contains quite a bit of water, you must compensate for this when
making up your solution. The nonahydrate crystals are about 60% Ferric
Nitrate and 40% water. So, to make a 20% solution of Ferric Nitrate
for instance, you must dissolve (20/0.6) = 33.3 grams of crystals in
about 70 cc of water. When it is all dissolved, add enough water to
make a total of 100 cc of solution. Regards …Bob Williams in cool, dry,
San Diego…He he he.
Jan, You’ve gotten a lot of great advice that I could not possibly
improve upon. But there’s one little caveat that no one seems to have
mentioned. You really should use_Distilled Water, not tap water. If
you know your local water is “Soft” (very few dissolved salts and
particulates), then it would probably be OK for most uses, but if your
water is very hard, as in Southern California, and you use it to make
a chemical solution, you will very likely have a lot of precipitated
"scum" on the surface and your chemical will not do what you’re
expecting. I found that out the hard way by making up some Liver of
Sulfate once when I didn’t have D.W., and thought I could "fudge.!"
Good luck.
Gary
Strickland
.....But there's one little caveat that no one seems to have mentioned. You really should use_Distilled Water, not tap water....
G’day all; Distilled water bought from a pharmacy or a laboratory
usually IS distilled - or at least deionised, which is just as good.
I know garages and service stations sell distilled water, but I am a
little wary - partly because I have actually seen one of the folk who
work at a garage top up the bottle from the tap, though the bottle
was clearly marked DISTILLED WATER. If you can’t get distilled or
deionised water, then rain water will be good enough to use for most
things.
My house is not on the town supply reticulation, and we use rain
water collected from the roof into a 6000 gallon underground concrete
tank. When we first moved in the water was very ‘hard’ because of the
calcium leaching out of the concrete, but this cleared after about a
year, and the total solids content of the water is very low indeed.
Not as low as distilled water of course, but quite satisfactory for
making up solutions of chemicals used in jewellery work. – Cheers now,
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua Nelson NZ