Re: 98% Sulfuric Acid. How Dangerous?

On Dec 10, 3:47 am, Martin Brown <|||newspam...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Dec 9, 7:50 pm, fxterra...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:





On Dec 9, 4:03 am, Martin Brown <|||newspam...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Dec 7, 2:54 am, fxterra...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hydrochloric Acid
Sulfuric Acid
Ferric Chloride

You would be well advised to use either Ferric Chloride or HCl with a
small amount H2O2 added for a controlled etch of copper. They are both
reasonably fast and effective and used for PCB etching so
photosensitive resist sprays are freely available (or some grades of
marker pen will work too).

Concentrated sulphuric acid is very unforgiving when diluted by
beginners and can flash boil water if you don't stir it in properly
(and it is lethal if you do it the wrong way around the water boils
and blasts conc acid into the air).
Reagent grade 10% nitric acid will attack copper quickly if you don't
care about the etch quality and toxic fumes.

If the OP actually wants to *corrode* copper then soaking it in cheap
vinegar might be one safer option.

Hi Martin,

I was wondering how effective sulfuric acid would be in this case.
Thank you for
confirming! I will probably go with the HCL + H2O2 mix as vinegar
would take too long.
Any idea where one could purchase these? (even online?)

You don't say where you are.

In Europe you can find both of these on some supermarket shelves and/
or hardware stores sold as limescale remover HCl and 10 or 20 vol
peroxide bleach/disinfectant respectively. Be sure to read the active
ingredient list carefully other things are used for limescale remover.
Don't try to keep the solution - mix only enough to use. Have a look
on some of the amateur electronics websites for optimum controlled
etch recipes.

I expect the "war on drugs" and the "war on terror" has made getting
peroxide more difficult but you don't need much or strong H2O2 to
encourage the reaction to proceed.

Are you trying to etch copper cleanly away or age it? The right answer
could be quite different if the objective is to give the copper a
suitable antique corroded patina.

Regards,
Martin Brown- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


Good question. I wanted to age it, although the corrosive property
alone is of greater importance.
Btw, Clorine works just fine. It eats through it in a matter of days!
.

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