Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[slink]

Aqua regia is a mixture of nitric acid with hydrocholoric acid, not with sulfuric acid.

[Lancensis]

Yeah, that's right, sorry. 4 Hydrochloric, 1 Nitric. I got confused because they mixed salt and vitriol to make the HCL

[Lancensis]

Anyway, Aqua Regia is believed to have been discovered in around 800AD by the Middle-Eastern Alchemist Geber, who is also credited with the constituent ingredients. It's a mixture of Hydrochloric acid and Nitric Acid mixed in a ratio of 4:1 (by volume) with maybe a bit extra Nitric acid if you're feeling wild. It works by the Nitric Acid oxidising small quantities of the metal involved, and the Hydrochloric acid providing enough Chlorine ions to bond with these freed ions, allowing the reaction to continue. Basically magic, yeah.

The Ancient method of producing the stuff was incredibly long and roundabout, so I decided to go for a simpler process. Most of these techniques were developed after the traditional 1400 cutoff, however they were completely possible, just no-one had tried them.
Hydrochloric acid is most easily produced by mixing salt with sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid was produced from about 1746 to 1946 by the Chamber method, which is relatively simple. Sulphur (Brimstone is the most likely candidate) is burnt in a lead chamber and mixed with steam and Nitrogen Dioxide. Nitrogen Dioxide is produced first as Nitrogen Oxide, which is obtained by burning either Saltpetre or Ammonia along with a catalyst which I'll get to shortly. Ammonia can be found naturally as Ammonium Chloride (Sal Ammoniac) and can be extracted from the salt by applying strong alkaliis. We already have Lye, which is dying for some new uses, so that might well do the trick.
Anyway, you mix the gases up in a sealed chamber and you'll find sulphuric acid collecting at the bottom of the tank. Adding salt will produce Hydrochloric Acid. That's part one done.
Nitric Acid isn't any more difficult to make. It's similar to producing sulphuric acid, only without the sulphur. The nitrogen dioxide gas is passed through water and it bonds with it to produce nitric acid. Mix the two finished acids together in the correct ratio and you have Aqua Regia.

Now, like mentioned earlier, Aqua Regia is dissolve-tastic. It's just about safe to keep in glass, if you don't let it get too warm, as this makes it even worse. A few other things that can withstand it are Diamond, Coronudum, Some Plastics (not really appropriate), Osmium and Iridium as (well of course) Rhenium, and Titanium. Wolfram and Tantalum are probably OK at low temperatures too. One odd quirk is that Gold/Silver alloys are apparantly tricky to dissolve because the silver forms a coating of silver chloride on the remaining alloy, protecting it. I guess it's a case of Hydrochloric and Nitric acid could beat up gold or silver if they ganged up on it, but if it's a fair two and two fight, they don't have a prayer.

Anyway, extracting osmium/irridium from platinum nuggets is pretty simple. Just dump the nuggets in there, and stir them about a bit. Eventually the platinum will have dissolved and remains suspended in the mixture as Platinum Chloride (?). There will be grains of osmium, iridium or possibly other platinum group metals like ruthenium and rhodium which will help make the alloy a bit stronger, and possibly more ductile. Anyway, you can simply remove the grains with a funnel and a filter. Hopefully you can find a decent filter- the website I read suggested coffee filters, but I don't think dwarves drink (non-Irish) coffee. Maybe an old beard would do it.


EDIT: My mistake. Copperas doesn't work for Platinum. I can't think of anyway the stuff could be precipitated from the solution. I suppose this at least makes the reaction more interesting for gameplay purposes.
Precipitating the platinum is a bit beyond the scope out what I had in mind, but Iron Sulphate, also known as copperas is capable of displacing the platinum in the chloride molecules, and causing it to reform as little Platinum flakes. There's a great story on wikipedia about a Dutch chemist in WW2 who dissolved the nobel prizes of some of his countrymen with Aqua Regia, left the mixture lying on a shelf through the war, unnoticed by the Nazis and came back afterwards and precipitated the gold which was then recast back into the medals. The question isn't whether dwarves would be able to do it, but rather whether they'd know to do it.

Lastly, the best part, The catalyst I mentioned before for creating Nitrogen Dioxide? That would be Platinum 

[darkflagrance]

I want to show my appreciation for this mod; the material diversity (especially of the war metals) changes the viability of many otherwise ordinary sites, and I find that this mod is well-complemented by others that introduce fierce enemies to use the warmetals against like orcs or the relentless assault monsters.