Dear Learned Ones…

 

Several years ago when confronted with the assertion that we couldn’t store nitric acid and acetic acid together (or nitric acid n a wooden shelf) because they were incompatible I conducted an experiment.

1.    I took glacial acetic acid and added concentrated nitric acid while stirring, anticipating a reaction… nothing happened. It didn’t get hot, cold or have gas evolve

2.    So after reaching a 50:50 mix I began heating while stirring (did I mention this was in a hood with proper PPE and a written procedure way back in the early 1990’s)

3.    I got in boiling and still there was no obvious reaction.

 

4.    Now I added pencil shavings in small amounts in the belief it would catch on fire…

5.    Nothing apparent happened.

6.    So I added more.

 

7.    Finally after 20 minutes mild boiling with concentrated nitric, glacial acetic and wood pieces I squirted just a drop of acetone a definitely got the reaction I expected (flame)

 

Does anyone have a real world experience where nitric acid caused an unwanted reaction with acetic acid or a wooden shelf?

 

Sincerely,

-Russ