From:
Ken Kretchman <kwkretch**At_Symbol_Here**ncsu.edu>
Subject:
Re: [DCHAS-L] Nitric Acid Disposal
Date:
Jul 15, 2021 17:03 UTC
Reply-To:
ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety
In-Reply-To:
Re: [DCHAS-L] Nitric Acid Disposal
Not adding anything more to a knowledge base here than a good story.... many years ago at a previous company research lab we had a 2nd level manager physicist whose wife
made jewelry. A common cleaner was water, ethanol, and nitric acid. He wanted to take some home. (not allowed of course). He knew about reactivity concern and mixed a small amount
into a small open beaker and waited for some time until he felt any reaction was spent. He then transferred into a small bottle, probably 250 ml, capped it, and then placed it on a counter in the back
of his office. A few hours later we got a call regarding an explosion, which had blown out the glass wall and door facing the corridor. He caught some shrapnel on the side of his face and subsequently took himself out of management for a year as a personally
issued disciplinary action.
Ken
Ken Kretchman, CIH, CSP, FAIHA Director, Environmental Health and Safety
NC State University / Box 8007 / 2620 Wolf Village Way / Raleigh North Carolina 27695-8007
Acetic acid or acetic anhydride can explode with nitric acid if not kept cold. Experiments demonstrate that mixtures containing more than 50% by weight of nitric acid in acetic anhydride may act as detonating explosives under certain conditions. An indication is given of the percentage mixtures of acetic anhydride-nitric acid which could be detonated using a priming charge and detonator.
