No. I think aqua regia is nitric and hydrochloric. I have noticed while using it that hydrochloric acid fumes and steel aren't a good mix.

It's pretty clear to me that the acid themselves are attacking the plastic without any help from the others. Sulphuric much quicker than nitric.

I'm currently waiting for another demijohn to dry for the nitric acid as tipping any concentrated acid into it wet wouldn't be a good idea at all.

John

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The bottles were all translucent Michael. The first to look odd was the sulphuric. The nitric is now pretty opaque. Hydrochloric (80% ??) is still as it was but that probably came from a chemical supplier initially as it was to order. The others from an industrial supplier out of a tank.

There is also a small quantity of saturated oxalic acid solution in there but I don't think it would cause any of these problems at all. That's in a lab bottle anyway. That particular one will attack stainless to a certain extent. Also remove rust.

If I noticed that mercury had disappeared while in my pocket I would probably be a worried man. It's nasty stuff.

My father did the explode on touch stuff from iodine at school. I spent hours once trying to do that at home in early school days but did manage to make some nice fireworks, flour and coal dust explode but gunpowder just wouldn't work. Certain fertalizers too that didn't work. I'd guess no one does any of this sort of thing these days either.

John

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You took that seriously ?

As to the rest we are all victims of what is called the precautionary principle these days. The problem is that people apply it themselves and that in some areas it's applied by people that can't look at it logically and just think about what might go wrong and ignore any positives. In the extreme it might result in some people preferring not to even go out of the house or take extensive precautions if they do. There has even been signs of it on here – angle grinders. They can cause harm. They don't if used sensibly – that's the catch with many things. Lathes and milling machines are disappearing from schools because they have exposed rotating parts. Rather curious guards are fitted at times but the machines still go and get replaced by totally enclosed cnc machines. This happens because some one is worrying about what happens if some one stupidly grabs hold of a rotating part or runs the machine so fast that red hot swarf is flying off the machine so safety glasses are no longer adequate. And so it goes on and on.

There is a related side issue as well. One famous example is people at work being sent on a training course to teach them how to use a step ladder. Why – because a company may have to demonstrate that they have done everything they can to prevent people from falling off them. The lack of common sense by users isn't considered at all.

John

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Edited By John W1 on 02/09/2015 09:59:18