[Jewelry making - Article 00403] - Re: [Orchid] I'm In A Pickle!!!

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     Okay  all you chemists out there  I seem to remember from my high
>     school chemistry courses (too many years ago to even think about)
>     that salt is what is used to neutralize vinegar 

    When an acid is combined with a base, the result is a salt, which
    depending on the strength of the acid and base involved, can be a
    still acidic salt, or an alkaline one.  One example is our common
    pickle, sodium bisulphate, which is a salt of sulphuric acid, but is
    still sufficiently acidic to do the job. 

    Salt in solution becomes a mix of chloride ions and sodium ions. i'm
    guessing that mixed with vinegar, an acidic environment (which means
    an excess of Hydrogen ions)  the result will be a very weak
    approximation of hydrochloric acid along with the accompanying
    acetic acid. This would indeed increase the corrosive ability of the
    mix over vinegar alone, but I'd still be surprised if this made an
    especially effective pickle.  On the other hand, I've never tried
    it. Perhaps I should? 

    Adding table salt to other acids can be of use in other situations
    too.  When I test the karat content of gold alloys,  sometimes
    instead of using a mix of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, which
    can react very quickly, I put a drop of nitric alone on the streaks
    on the test plate, and then sprinkle a bit of salt on one edge of the
    acid covered area.  As the chloride ions dissipate into the acid, it
    forms weak, slowly reacting aqua regia, giving a nice slow and
    easily judged reaction speed.  Plus it means that I'm only using one
    acid for the test (salt is a lot cheaper than the acids).  Works best
    on karat contents under 18K. higher karats need the stronger mix to
    give a good reaction in a reasonable amount of time... 

Peter



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