Sulphuric, Nitric, Hydrochloric, Carbolic, any more you can think of, What's the baddest kind of Acid?

Question

Me and Sean were just talking about it, and we wondered if any of you lot could shed some light?

kevin: Yes I am a nutter, but a gentle and kind one. Sean is by far the badder, being an ex-Angel, whereas I just live there. He used to run a factory dealing with all that nasty stuff but, like me, he's forgotten more than he'll ever learn in the future. Thanks for the Hydrofluoric answer, to the other bloke that said that, it's got us buzzing now about all the BAD BAD things we could do if we had the motives and opportunities....

Answer 1

From memory, I believe Perchloric Acid is the strongest (most acidic). All you have to do is look in a reference chemistry book for the one with the LOWEST pH -- that one will be the most acidic ("baddest")

Answer 2

The strongest (the worst) acid is a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid, it is called "aqua regia'. It's the only way to dissolve Gold for example (if anyone is foolish enough to want to dissolve gold).
It was discovered in the IX th century by a Jabir ibn Hayyan who also discovered chloridric acid.

Its most famous use was during world war 2 when Denmark was invaded by the German troops. The Hungarian chemist George de Hevesy dissolved Max von Laue's golden Nobel price to avoid it being stolen by the Nazis. He kept the solution on a shelf in his lab at the Niels Bohr institute, and after the war he precipitated his solution and the Nobel Price Society re-founded the trophy from the original gold.

Don't put your fingers in it !

Answer 3

I think HCl is less toxic than H2SO4 or HNO3 for a given PH level. That is PH5 hydrochloric acid in water is less toxic than sulfuric. Your own body used hydrochloric acid to digest food so you could not live without it. As a hydrogen ion donor, perchloric acid is about the strongest there is. As others have commented hydrofluoric acid is very nasty stuff.

Answer 4

In water, HCl, HBr, HI, HNO3, H2SO4 and HClO4 are all totally dissociated into ions so they are all equally strong. HF is a weak acid since it is only slightly ionized. Now, about the baaadddest of these puppies. HNO3 is really nasty, has a bad odor and will turn your skin yellowish-brown as soon as it touches you. HF and lots of fluoride compounds contain the very small F ion which penetrates the skin really fast and will react with the calcium ions in your blood to produce insoluble calcium fluoride. Your body depends on calcium ion to regulate muscle function and if all the calcium is removed, it has a big effect on the most important muscle of all - your heart. Massive doses of fluoride ion are accompanied by heart attacks. Lets see - carbolic acid is also known as phenol and is pretty good at dissolving skin. Low dosages of it are in cough syrups so they can dissolve all the crud that forms in your throat (eeeeewww). For organic acids, butyric acid is hard to beat, it is the essence of vomit. I guess all-in-all, nitric is my least favorite.

Answer 5

If you are talking about the most dangerous to humans, I would say that HF acid is pretty ugly. If you get it on you, you cannot wash it off, it seeps in your skin and eats your underlying muscles and it doesn't go away, the acid keeps regenerating. In the past, you have have to get the exposed appendage amputated so that it wouldn't spread to other parts of the body and kill you. I think there are painful injections you can take now that would save the exposed limb.

Answer 6

Permanganate would oxidize chloride to elemental chlorine and consume part of it preventing a quantative measure of the oxalate. Nitric acid is also an oxidizing agent and could consume some of the oxalate, thus causing an erroneous measurement of the permanganate volume.

Answer 7

Names of acids? There is also Phosphoric, Phosphorous, Sulfurous, Nitrous, Hydrofluoric, Hydrobromic, Hydroiodic, Hydrocyanic (HCN), Carbonic, and all of the organic acids.

A mixture of Nitric and Hydrochloric acid is called Aqua Regia and this will even dissolve gold and other precious metals.

How Bad is bad? Hydrofluoric will eat glass. Most of the others will eat skin and damage lungs. Nitric acid is used in making explosives and munitions for war.

These are all pale compared to Hydrocyanic acid. It is the gas chamber gas (it kills on contact or breathing a single breath). It is made by dropping KCN or NaCN into hydrochloric acid.

Answer 8

Peter K took the words from my mouth. Hydrofluoric acid is skin absorbed and dissolves the calcium content of your skeleton - this is defiantly not recommended - just the fumes from this acid are sufficiently unpleasant to etch glass. Best avoided!

Answer 9

Perchloric acid, HClO4, is the meanest. It combines vigorously with water with evolution of heat. It undergoes spontaneous and explosive decomposition, hence it is marketed only in mixture with water containing 60-70% HClO4.

HF, hydroflouric acid is also very bad.

Answer 10

first of all you would ask which is the WORST kind of acid(don't wanna get that wrong on the SATs, lol)
and I think it is sulfuric, we have a form of hydrochloric acid in our stomach, and if you mix sulfuric acid with potassium nitrate you get nitric acid, so that fact that it can help CREATE and acid says something right?

Answer 11

For my money, nitric is the worst there is, followed by sulphuric and then Hydrochloric. Not only for the strength, but for the noxious fumes that they can produce.

All of the rest are in the minor leagues.