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How to dissolve bronze at room temperature
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Marcin Nowak
How to dissolve bronze at room temperature
Supposing that the bronze is only 78% copper and 12% tin (and there are no other metals). Nitric acid will dissolve the copper... but this reaction is exothermic, which means it will heat up.
At boiling temperature. Nitric acid will also react with tin to make tin oxide which is soluble. However, if you kept it cool/room temperature with an ice bath, then you would have leftover tin which did not react.
Tin will react with aqua regia to form tin (IV) chloride, but copper is slower to react with aqua regia... so it would be better to use nitric acid first (to dissolve the copper) and then add hydrochloric acid to react with and dissolve the tin. Once again, the reaction between tin and hydrochloric acid (or aqua regia) will proceed much faster with heat, but it will happen at room temperature.
Aqua regia = 1 mole of Nitric acid and 3 moles of hydrochloric acid).
Supposing that the bronze is only 78% copper and 12% tin (and there are no other metals). Nitric acid will dissolve the copper... but this reaction is exothermic, which means it will heat up.
At boiling temperature. Nitric acid will also react with tin to make tin oxide which is soluble. However, if you kept it cool/room temperature with an ice bath, then you would have leftover tin which did not react.
Tin will react with aqua regia to form tin (IV) chloride, but copper is slower to react with aqua regia... so it would be better to use nitric acid first (to dissolve the copper) and then add hydrochloric acid to react with and dissolve the tin. Once again, the reaction between tin and hydrochloric acid (or aqua regia) will proceed much faster with heat, but it will happen at room temperature.
Aqua regia = 1 mole of Nitric acid and 3 moles of hydrochloric acid).
@MatějKripner It depends on factors like temperature and surface area (powdered bronze might go boom). This is kind of a dangerous reaction, so I would recommend going slowly with lots of ventillation (like outside with fans), and fire extinguishers and perhaps the fire deparment (this could be of some educational importance to them too). Dont breathe any red gas. If possible, start small (grams) and work your way up (to ounces). I could see this reaction taking any where from 1-6 hours to complete (depending on how quickly you feed it and the temperature and thickness/shape of the bronze).More
Any guess on just now much nitric and aqua regia that will take? Disposal will be a problem to consider before starting, since it will be hazardous waste.More
@MatějKripner I just saw that you are a novelist... with practice and good equipment, I suppose you could dissolve a statue pretty quickly, but if you are considering something like spraying a bronze statue, its not going to work in a practical way. You would need to soak the statue in a vat of nitric acid.More
Supposing that the bronze is only 78% copper and 12% tin (and there are no other metals). Nitric acid will dissolve the copper... but this reaction is exothermic, which means it will heat up.
At boiling temperature. Nitric acid will also react with tin to make tin oxide which is soluble. However, if you kept it cool/room temperature with an ice bath, then you would have leftover tin which did not react.
Tin will react with aqua regia to form tin (IV) chloride, but copper is slower to react with aqua regia... so it would be better to use nitric acid first (to dissolve the copper) and then add hydrochloric acid to react with and dissolve the tin. Once again, the reaction between tin and hydrochloric acid (or aqua regia) will proceed much faster with heat, but it will happen at room temperature.
Aqua regia = 1 mole of Nitric acid and 3 moles of hydrochloric acid).
Supposing that the bronze is only 78% copper and 12% tin (and there are no other metals). Nitric acid will dissolve the copper... but this reaction is exothermic, which means it will heat up.
At boiling temperature. Nitric acid will also react with tin to make tin oxide which is soluble. However, if you kept it cool/room temperature with an ice bath, then you would have leftover tin which did not react.
Tin will react with aqua regia to form tin (IV) chloride, but copper is slower to react with aqua regia... so it would be better to use nitric acid first (to dissolve the copper) and then add hydrochloric acid to react with and dissolve the tin. Once again, the reaction between tin and hydrochloric acid (or aqua regia) will proceed much faster with heat, but it will happen at room temperature.
Aqua regia = 1 mole of Nitric acid and 3 moles of hydrochloric acid).
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