Uploaded March 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
5 grams of Platinum made into a big Chloroplatinic acid crystal weighing ca. 13 grams from Aqua Regia. Check out me and Amir making 13 grams of dissolved platinum. This way you can hide all your expensive jewellery, nobody will know that you are rich!
'On the day the Nazis came to Copenhagen, a Hungarian chemist named Georgy de Hevesy (he would one day win a Nobel of his own) was working in Bohr's lab. He wrote later, "I suggested that we should bury the medal(s)," but Bohr thought no, the Germans would dig up the grounds, the garden, search everywhere in the building. Too dangerous.
So Hevesy's thoughts turned to chemistry. Maybe he could make the medals disappear. He took the first one, he says, and "I decided to dissolve it. While the invading forces marched in the streets of Copenhagen, I was busy dissolving Laue's and also James Franck's medals."
This was not an obvious solution, since gold is a very stable element, doesn't tarnish, doesn't mix, and doesn't dissolve in anything — except for one particular chemical emulsifier, called "aqua regia," a mixture of three parts hydrochloric acid and one part nitric acid.'
Aqua regia (Latin for "Royal Water") is a solution of nitrohydrochloric acid comprised of a 3:1 mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, respectively. It is used to dissolve noble metals such as gold, platinum and palladium from substrates, particularly in microfabrications and microelectronics labs. Glassware may also be washed with aqua regia to remove organic compounds only in trace amounts. Aqua regia solutions are extremely corrosive and may result in explosion or skin burns if not handled with extreme caution. In the old times, diluted Aqua regia was used in medicine to treat syphilis, scurvy, dysenteri and liver diseases.
Concentrated it requires caution during handling:
Always use glass (preferably Pyrex) containers. Aqua regia will melt some plastics and corrode most metals.
Never store aqua regia solutions. Mix up only what you need, then destroy after each use.
Mix the solution in a properly ventilated hood in small quantities. Wear chemical splash goggles, faceshield, labcoat and appropriate gloves.
When preparing the aqua regia solution, always add the nitric acid to the hydrochloric acid slowly.
Dissolving metals in aqua regia releases toxic gases, always work with aqua regia in a fumehood.
Aqua regia solution is very energetic and potentially explosive. It is very likely to become hot, more than 100 C. Handle with care.
Adding any acids or bases to aqua regia or spraying it with water will accelerate the exothermic reaction. Leave the hot aqua regia solution in an open container until cool.
Never store aqua regia in a closed container. It will oxidize over time to form toxic nitrosyl chloride, nitrogen dioxide and chlorine gases. This will pressurize the container, likely causing an explosion.
Mixing aqua regia with organic compounds may cause an explosion.
#KenSweden
#Science
#Platinum
#Acids
5 grams of Platinum made into a big Chloroplatinic acid crystal weighing ca. 13 grams from Aqua Regia. Check out me and Amir making 13 grams of dissolved platinum. This way you can hide all your expensive jewellery, nobody will know that you are rich!
'On the day the Nazis came to Copenhagen, a Hungarian chemist named Georgy de Hevesy (he would one day win a Nobel of his own) was working in Bohr's lab. He wrote later, "I suggested that we should bury the medal(s)," but Bohr thought no, the Germans would dig up the grounds, the garden, search everywhere in the building. Too dangerous.
So Hevesy's thoughts turned to chemistry. Maybe he could make the medals disappear. He took the first one, he says, and "I decided to dissolve it. While the invading forces marched in the streets of Copenhagen, I was busy dissolving Laue's and also James Franck's medals."
This was not an obvious solution, since gold is a very stable element, doesn't tarnish, doesn't mix, and doesn't dissolve in anything — except for one particular chemical emulsifier, called "aqua regia," a mixture of three parts hydrochloric acid and one part nitric acid.'
Aqua regia (Latin for "Royal Water") is a solution of nitrohydrochloric acid comprised of a 3:1 mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, respectively. It is used to dissolve noble metals such as gold, platinum and palladium from substrates, particularly in microfabrications and microelectronics labs. Glassware may also be washed with aqua regia to remove organic compounds only in trace amounts. Aqua regia solutions are extremely corrosive and may result in explosion or skin burns if not handled with extreme caution. In the old times, diluted Aqua regia was used in medicine to treat syphilis, scurvy, dysenteri and liver diseases.
Concentrated it requires caution during handling:
Always use glass (preferably Pyrex) containers. Aqua regia will melt some plastics and corrode most metals.
Never store aqua regia solutions. Mix up only what you need, then destroy after each use.
Mix the solution in a properly ventilated hood in small quantities. Wear chemical splash goggles, faceshield, labcoat and appropriate gloves.
When preparing the aqua regia solution, always add the nitric acid to the hydrochloric acid slowly.
Dissolving metals in aqua regia releases toxic gases, always work with aqua regia in a fumehood.
Aqua regia solution is very energetic and potentially explosive. It is very likely to become hot, more than 100 C. Handle with care.
Adding any acids or bases to aqua regia or spraying it with water will accelerate the exothermic reaction. Leave the hot aqua regia solution in an open container until cool.
Never store aqua regia in a closed container. It will oxidize over time to form toxic nitrosyl chloride, nitrogen dioxide and chlorine gases. This will pressurize the container, likely causing an explosion.
Mixing aqua regia with organic compounds may cause an explosion.
#KenSweden
#Science
#Platinum
#Acids
