Disposal of NO2

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Brian
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Disposal of NO2

Post by Brian »

I'm currently looking up possible ways to recover gold from things like cellphones and circuit boards. I'm not much of a chemist, but I used to be pretty good when I was at university. I have watched a number of videos about the process and am concerned that, without proper disposal, the NO2 released by using HNO3 to strip plastics and other things might be too toxic to do outside in the backyard (ignoring the effect on our local air quality). So, I started digging to see what I might be able to use the NO2 for and I learned that unwanted NO2(g) can be destroyed by slowly bubbling it through 1M NaOH. This produces NANO2 + NANO3 + H2O.

So.... 2 questions are:
Can I dump NANO2 + NANO3 + H2O down the sewer drain? NANO2 is used as a food additive and NANO3 is naturally occurring. (maybe I should dump it on my garden?)

If there something cooler that I could use the NO2 for? (and no, making bombs is not cool)

Thanks for your time,
Brian
doctodor
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Location: USA

Post by doctodor »

Use a distillation-type setup and bubble the gas into H2O2 for a very clean acid product.

NO + H2O2 -> HNO3 + H2O
NO2 + H2O -> HNO3 + HNO2
HNO2 + H2O2 -> HNO3 + H2O

Or be Cheap and put it into HCO3- for some nitrate salt. Nitric is very useful, it would be a shame to just dump it.
DO, BSBC
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