Nitric Acid Acts Upon Copper
While reading a textbook of chemistry I
came upon the statement, "nitric acid acts
upon copper." I was getting tired of
reading such absurd stuff and I was
determined to see what this meant.
Copper was more or less familiar to me,
for copper cents were then in use. I had
seen a bottle marked nitric acid on a table
in the doctor's office where I was then
"doing time."
I did not know its peculiarities, but the
spirit of adventure was upon me. Having
nitric acid and copper, I had only to learn
what the words "act upon" meant. The
statement "nitric acid acts upon copper"
would be more than mere words.
All was still. In the interest of knowledge
I was even willing to sacrifice one of the
few copper cents then in my possession. I
put one of them on the table, opened the
bottle marked nitric acid, poured some of
the liquid on the copper and prepared to
make an observation. But what was this
wonderful thing which I beheld?
The cent was already
changed and it was no
small change either. A
green-blue liquid foamed
and fumed over the cent
and over the table.
The air in the neighborhood of the
performance became colored dark red. A
great colored cloud arose. This was
disagreeable and suffocating. How should
I stop this?
I tried to get rid of the objectionable mess
by picking it up and throwing it out of the
window. I learned another fact. Nitric
acid not only acts upon copper, but it acts
upon fingers. The pain led to another
unpremeditated experiment. I drew my
fingers across my trousers and another
fact was discovered. Nitric acid acts upon
trousers.
Taking everything into consideration, that
was the most impressive experiment and
relatively probably the most costly
experiment I have ever performed... It
was a revelation to me. It resulted in a
desire on my part to learn more about
that remarkable kind of action. Plainly,
the only way to learn about it was to see
its results, to experiment, to work in a
laboratory.
Ira Remsen
Ira Remsen, born in New York City in
1846, was originally trained as a
medical doctor but left that field to study
chemistry and went on to become a
leader in chemical education and
research and to become the president of
Johns Hopkins University. He was the
accidental discoverer of saccharin, an
artificial sweetener.
The brown
gas is toxic.
The nitric
acid itself
is dangerous.
The brown
gas is toxic.
Use a
fume hood!
Now you are going to see how
nitric acid acts upon copper.
Several copper pennies will be
placed into a solution of
concentrated nitric acid.
What is the formula for nitric acid?
HNO3
The 18M stock
solution of
nitric acid.
A 4M solution of
nitric acid.
Copper pennies.
The pennies are
placed into a
beaker of nitric
acid, HNO3, in
a fume hood.
A watch glass
makes the gas
more visible.
What changes
do you observe
in the liquid?
Check out the
temperature
change.
This sample
went from
22C to 38C.
The reaction is
stopped by
removing the
pennies..
What changes
do you observe
in the pennies?
How has the
liquid phase
changed?
What accounts
for the color?
With what
acids will
copper react?
The pennies
used must
have been
minted before
1982.
Why?
1. How do we know a reaction occurs?
2. Indicators of chemical reaction?
3. Exothermic or endothermic?
4. Energy vs reaction pathway
5. Why concentrated HNO3?
6. Factors affecting reaction rates?
7. Predicting products from properties
8. What are the types of reactions?
9. What type of reaction is it?
10. Single replacement?
11. Redox
12. Oxidation number changes
13. Balanced chemical equation
14. Net ionic equation
15. Nomenclature.
And that is just for the reaction in
step one … as nitric acid is acting
upon copper.
Oxidizing and reducing agents
The Copper Cycle Lab
Activity
series
REDOX
Solubility
rules
1. Synthesis
2. Decomposition
3. Single replacement
4. Double replacement
5. Combustion of a
hydrocarbon
1. Precipitate
2. Gas given off
3. Temperature change
4. Color change
Predicting products
Types of reactions
Evidence of
reaction
Balancing Equations
Copper Lab
Net ionic
equations
Stock system
Nomenclature
Acids
Stoichiometry
Acid/base neutralization
Reaction rate
factors
1. Concentration
2. Temperature
3. Surface area
4. Catalyst
pH and [H+]
Strong & weak
Thermodynamic
s
Activation energy
Endothermic & exothermic
Reaction pathway
Comments or questions may be directed to
Mike Jones
Pisgah High School
Canton NC
mjones@haywood.k12.nc.us
07/13/05
06/02/10
Rev. 011812