Make Hydrochloric Acid

We show how to make hydrochloric acid from sodium bisulfate and table salt.

The synthesis is rather simple, we generate hydrogen chloride gas by mixing together 140g of sodium bisulfate and 60g of sodium chloride salt and then heating. 20mL of water can be added to lower the temperature required but this is optional. Hydrogen chloride gas will be produced. This gas is lead into distilled water to produce hydrochloric acid. Be careful though, hydrogen chloride is so soluble that the water will pull itself into the tube trying to absorb it. In the video i use an elaborate back-flow prevention system to prevent loss of the product.

Sodium bisulfate is available as a pH lowering chemical. 30mL of sulfuric acid may be used as a replacement if you have it. Although if you had that, you probably don't need hydrochloric acid.

[NurdRage]

@Bluwhodesign While the great majority of comments for other videos might be like that. I find a good portion of the comments on my videos are rational and thought out. My subscribers and my audience mostly consist of genuinely interested and capable people. It is for them i keep making these videos.

The idiots usually get so bored my stuff that they move on, so I'm not worried about them.

[drcula]

Man, I was so tired of doing maths almost the entire day, proving various links between triangles etc, and when I came to youtube, I was looking for some easy entertainment, but I found your video. Even though I'm not that good in chemists, your video somehow made me feel alot better. Thanks for the interesting walkthroughs and keep it up.

[maxwieland]

Whoever you are mysterious guy of chemistry, you are pretty damn cool

[NurdRage]

It's always easier to buy stuff. I like making stuff sometimes to demonstrate the science. Also the principles learned can be applied to other experiments where you can't buy the chemicals.

[RollLandOh]

i know the business, and you know the chemistry

[kunven]

i think it is more easy to stab my stomach with a syringe

[xXAnthonyXx]

@NurdRage Also I might add.... Many of your subscribers, including myself, find the process of chemistry fascinating. I would not actually attempt these acts on my own and watching NurdRage doing this "primitive" type of chemistry is AWESOME! The explanations of the reactions I find absolutely amazing! I love science and I feel that NurdRage perpetuates my interest in science. Anything that increases this interest I find to be extremely CONSTRUCTIVE.

[matthewking]

BTW, the piece is called a gas inlet adapter.

[bigarmyrob]

"I want to play a game."
Thats all I could think of listening to this lol

[NurdRage]

@DominicCopeland the one under the ice is just for stirring, the heat isn't turned on. The hot plate for the reaction is set to 250 degrees Celsius.

[chemplanes]

This is a very good method for synthesizing HCl. I've obtained a concentration between 20-30% but it's fine for most purposes. Great video :)

[StaigeFright]

I figured it out thanks anyway. It is a 24/40 distillation adaptor. Love you channel and hope you keep up the good work.

[SpyProductions]

I've found that if you add more water, the water vaporizes and ends up in the round bottom, and is much more concentrated. When I did this the back flow mixed with the concentrated Hcl and made it less concentrated. My apparatus is a little different pm me if you want to see it.

[eclectichoosier]

I tried this the other day, with a different setup, and got a surprise.
I used a short-path distillation setup into a 1000mL 2neck RBF submerged in an ice bath. (Because why not?) The other neck had a gas adapter that went to a bubbler in a tube in an ice bath.
After a short time, the bubbler stopped bubbling entirely. There was no blockage - the gas adapter had a stopper that would have popped out easily enough - and water kept distilling over to the iced flask, so I let it go until I figured the reaction was complete.
When I tested the tube water, the pH was ~7, but when I unstoppered the iced flask, I could smell the HCl immediately. The water in there tested around 1 with my cheap Chinese pH paper. I haven't had a chance to titrate it yet, but I've used it for a few things, and it seems pretty strong!
I'm guessing the HCl absorbed into the distilled water pretty efficiently as it beaded and cooled on the walls of the flask.
I'm assuming that the initial bubbling was just some displacement of the air in the system. I did notice that it started getting some back-flow as soon as I removed the heat. It wasn't violent, though, and I disconnected the hose before it reached the flask.

I will definitely be using this recipe/setup again!
Thanks for the great videos!

[joshuahunterwilkins]

This would go great for my evil laboratory. You know it's evil because I pronounce it "Luh-boar- uh- tor-ee".

[explosives]

I think you are the best chemist on youtube

[MrSuednym]

Would regular iodized table salt work for the reaction, or would it be more likely to form hydroiodic acid?

[NurdRage]

@omegahunter9 to be honest, actually DID get my sodium bisulfate from home-depot, :) its in the plumbing section. for some reason they didn't have hydrochloric acid like i was expecting, but had sodium bisulfate. Ah well, as you can see from the video that didn't stop me from getting HCl :)

[spamspanker]

Every DIY video has some dork saying, "You can just buy the stuff!"

[rushianokun]

Thank god I did not unsuscribe when you burned those edward figures, this is really the quality I hoped for, keep this going man, its really motivation for me to keep up my grades, clearly knowledge is power!!