• Method #25 - success?

    100dollarhacker • 4 days ago • 0 comments

    I've left puffed rice cookie on the table the other day. It been there for 20 minutes or so, when I took a bite I felt it has totally absorbed moisture and was not crispy anymore. I've checked weather application and it was 90% or more humidity. 

    Could it be that the acid slowly absorb moisture? The experiment takes about an hour it long time indeed.

    I've re-watched videos about making Nitric acid suddenly I've noticed that all flasks and tubes tightly connected, no place for air to enter.

    So instead of buying lab equipment (and making everything huge) will try to place a bottle on the flask's arm and seal it with Viton rubber band. 

    The idea to have a tiny gap in the rubber band so hot nitric acid gas will not build up a pressure on the other was air with moisture will not get in. 

    Yeay! This method is successful. Got Nitric acid. One drop of it on tiny copper wire and it changed it's color to dark brown instead of yellow-gold. One drop of water and copper was instantly dissolved. 

    As it became very late I didn't continue the experiment just dropped a drop on already opened IC using laser. By the way using 'cheap' (200$) IR 1Watt 1064nm laser. Doing amazing job on removing layers of epoxy. Here is a video of the process:

    Now I waiting to see the results.

  • Method #24 - Failed

    100dollarhacker • 05/23/2025 at 13:12 • 0 comments

    Just like method #23 but with better cooling system. 

    So I've made 3D printed sleeve to better cool the flask arm. 

    Let's see if we get better results with it.

    As I've turned on the pump water started to leak.

    Yeah, 3D printed not good for pressure but coating with thin layer of epoxy glue will solve the problem 

    Added a thin epoxy layer and leakage stopped. This time temperature was right not too high. Cooling temperature was above dew point. Still got low concentration of nitric acid. I don't know maybe it was humidity that kills the acid. 

    I've started to think about how can I prevent humidity. At this point I we realized that this went way too far. I mean, I got an enclosure and fan and windows too look at. Water cooling system, pump bucket of water. I got stove and electric relay to control with Arduino temperature sensor. And PC to monitor. 

    THAT'S NOT SIMPLE AT ALL! 

    The previous ideas was easy just bit of potassium nitrate and drop of Sulfuric acid. And heater that's all, unfortunately it breaks bond wires. 

    I will not continue this method as it becomes too complicated and not safe.

  • Method #23 - another failure

    100dollarhacker • 05/13/2025 at 18:05 • 0 comments

    Just like #22 which is make nitric acid on low temperature. Instead of leaving nitric acid inside cavity made in IC for few hours just burn the Mother F🤬@$ing IC until bonding wires visible!! If not just throw this method to garbage as it clearly not as easy/safe as I thought it would be when started. - This time I have hold the temperature in the right range but no acid cane out. Once temperature was increased to 90°c drops followed but it's quality was low (it was low concentration again). 

    I will try to use sock to better spread temperature in the flask and better cooling line. And probably use water at room temperature. This method is really tricky....

    Interesting find, I've put few LEDs into nitric acid. After a day nothing happened. It's looks like LEDs cannot be disintegrated with Nitric acid. This is extremely disappointing, as it was one of my goals for using acids.

    I've placed some SOT-23 transistors and nothing happened. Maybe bit of copper killed acid? I guess I have to run another experiment.

  • Method #22 - Fail

    100dollarhacker • 05/05/2025 at 02:47 • 0 comments

    Pretty much like method #21 this time put sensor from the bottom. Plus, make sure temperature doesn't rise above 83°c at the buttom of the flask where mixture is.

    Still not sure if cooling with ice can bring moisture into the system. When running on empty container I got vapors out of nowhere (it was fun experiment with kids). In real system the boiling Sulfuric acid makes hot vapors that getting out and probably doesn't let air and moisture to get in. Without cooling there is really little yield. 

    Ok, this time I think I've made Red Fuming Nitric Acid. 

    I've used 40grams potassium nitrate and 25ml Sulfuric acid. (About the same volume of materials) This time I've set correctly the temperature sensor (to point to the mixture)

    Now I've newly acquired potassium nitrate (probably it doesn't have moisture my previous had) as usually the temperature raised to 100°c before I even noticed. I was sure it will be ruined so I've made video hopefully I could show the smoke column like I made previously, instead it was slow reaction. Color was dark green not bluish green.

    You can see wires survived! After cleaning with acetone (not water otherwise it will delute acid and dissolve copper) I got this 

    It's hard to see but wire is intact! I got little bit of output (probably because it run on 100°c for few minutes)

    It's only few drops but it's more than I need. Plus let's test new sealing (pH strips attached)

    After half a day the pH strips stayed in their neutral color meaning that Viton rubber holds well nitric acid. 

    I milled two ICs and made a tiny rectangular hole to place acid. Placed a drop of acid and placed ICs in a closed container similar to one that holds nitric acid. (This time we are running in room temperature just as experiment with TOS-23 transistors which was so easy to recreate)

    Now let's wait day or two... We are not rushing... 

    After few hours I've noticed that all acid was gone. So I took pictures under a microscope 

    Unless this are traces of epoxy-eating-alien-worms those are probably space left after bonding wires being dissolved. This is so strange... I thought the acid is concentrated enough to add passivation layer for copper bond wires. I don't know what I did wrong this time ...

    It might be that nitric acid vaporization is faster than water since it nitric acid vaporization point is 83°c. So leaving nitric acid like this probably lower it's concentration until it low enough to dissolve copper. 

  • Method #21 - Failed

    100dollarhacker • 04/28/2025 at 22:06 • 0 comments

    The same method I used before, now let's restrict temperature of Sulfuric acid and Potassium nitrate to less than 200°c. To test I will use thin copper wire. If it survives we can move forward and use real IC.

    It might look easy but MOSFETs cannot be used. Since they are better suited for DC not AC. So Triac or electric relay must be used. But the thermostat thing with Arduino can stay as is.

    I've always wanted to make Arduino regulated power socket. 

    It went surprisingly smooth. 

    Also changed gasket to Viton rubber. I hope it will withstand Nitric acid. 

    Also replaced cooling rubber tube as few Nitric acid drops felt on it and it cracked. 

    What's reminds me not to play with Nitric acid to much few drops and dispose of it. 

    I've started from range of  160-170 when I measured the temperature of the plate but nothing happened. So I've increased gradually to 200 and nothing happened. Some sites said 200 some 180. So I targeted the sensor to the upper part of boiling mixture the temperature was only 50°c as I did that owen started (as it was set to about 200°c) until I realized what happened the temperature on the plate rised to more than 300°c and flask was filled with red fumes. I've checked the quality by dipping fine copper wire in it. It desolved as usually, too much heat killing Nitric acid. 

    Re-watched and re-read everything I could find on DIY nitric acid acid and RFNA (Red fuming nitric acid) only now I got where the 200 or 180 degrees coming from. It's fahrenheit! And in Celsius it 83°c which the temperature which Nitric acid decomposing to water and something else.

    Got it! I've decided to re-run the experiment with my last portion of Potassium nitrate. This time I've pointed the sensor to the mixture not the plate.

     The test was pretty much the same with red fumes now I tried to change the direction of the sensor the temperature jumped to 180°c! Alas! I aimed to high! I throwed waht I've got in the output flask and restarted again, knowingly it already contaminated with some water got few drops their color was more transparent (no yellow) 

    I didn't expect too much as I knew the temperature was wrong but the result surprised me! Instead of usual dissolving which typically looks like this:

    This time I got only few drops and same amount of ultra thin 0.02mm copper wire but it dissolved in such a vigorous/violent way! I saw red plums of fumes and it was boiling. My first thought was OMG how do I turn it off. Luckily there was so little of copper and Nitric acid so it stopped after few seconds. 

    I don't have video of this as it happened so fast and it was my last portion of Potassium nitrate. I will redo the experiment only for the sake of making this chemical reaction 😝

    One thing was clear this time it was much more concentrated acid. 

  • Method #20 -Fail

    100dollarhacker • 04/25/2025 at 03:25 • 0 comments

    I've already tried to put 0.3 mm copper wire into nitric acid and it survived. Would 0.02mm wire (which mimic real bond wire) survive? Now the acid (hopefully) more concentrated although the wire much thinner. 

    Got this

    It's much thinner than my hair(!) and it's conducting so it's not enameled.

    Well, run another experiment with it's ended up with thin copper wire dissolved in seconds

    Not just copper got dissolved also the jar that holds the nitric acid. 

    The red on ph indicator means that some acid got out. 

    After some examining I found that gasket seal was dissolved from Nitric acid vapors.

    Also my hands got some ... You can see orange spots. Luckily the acid is not to concentrated.

    Yeah, nasty stuff... 

    And yes I should use gloves, unfortunately not all gloves can be used. Nitrile gloves get dissolved even with this concentration (at least they didn't catch fire) also Latex gloves get dissolved. For now only Vinyl gloves holds let's hope it can withstand higher acid concentration.

    No wonder nothing worked. Re-watched videos... I missed the point that it should be done in less than 200°c

  • Method #19 -Failed

    100dollarhacker • 04/21/2025 at 22:58 • 0 comments

    Same as #18 but instead if using warm Nitric acid place in a jar at room temperature.

    Actually I've tried this before but now it's working I guess the material of epoxy is different. Plus, instead of using big chips I've used small SOT-23 transistors. This method much faster to work with as decapping takes only few seconds. 

    It started as mistake, I got few transistors and few drops of nitric acid. As hour got late I just throw few transistors into the jar and left it for the day. 

    After 24hours those transistors were totally dissolved. I tried to separate the acid and the remaining of transistors. I've poured water to make nitric acid concentration lower and drained the top of water. To my surprise I found that all the transistors went down the drain (!) ouch... I guess I'll have to run this experiment again. Maybe this time I will try to make better nitric acid concentration.  If not I will be forced to abandon this project 😕

    It occurred to me that I using freezing water. Although it's great for better yield it might add water drops as the temperature is lower than dew point which is about 10°c today as temp outside is about 20°c, I will try using room temperature water instead. Hope to get better quality of nitric acid 

    Ok, now I did everything right. I've used room temperature water, put right proportions of Sulfuric acid and nitrate salt. I got no Sulfuric acid in the end only the by product. 

    BUT 

    Nitrile gloves didn't catch fire so I guess the concentration is not high enough. I've dropped five SOT-23 transistors/diodes in a jar and let it sit there for 24 hours. I've expected nothing as I got exhausted from this project (20 failed experiments give a break). The interesting thing is that remains of nitric acid didn't turn green as was with hot acid. It was more brown fluid with debris of what day before was transistor/diode. 

    I've careful took out shiny things using pipette. Here was a surprise I found intact lead frames and terminals.

    Which was super duper strange. From what I seen until now the terminals get evaporated once nitric acid touch them. The lead frame is made of copper, it should get evaporated too. Maybe there is some hope for this project.

    Although all bond wires are gone, maybe because of gentle force I used when I've shaked the bottle. Anyways another failed experiment. 

  • Method #18 - FAIL

    100dollarhacker • 12/02/2024 at 05:51 • 0 comments

    Use method #17 to get Nitric acid. Then use gentle method to get IC to the right temperature and use ultrasound bath to clean residue. 

    Since the beginning of the project I've never measured the temperature of IC but of the heating head, which is correlated but definitely not equal. Now I've made some simple Arduino based IR temperature sensor plus mosfet to control heating head temperature.

    This way I can set 80°c and be sure that no acid is wasted and IC is not above it's maximal temperature.

    Printed a nice holder for temperature sensor.

    Tested, found out that MOSFET getting really hot. So, adding a heat sink is a must. Except that, heating up until 80 degrees Celsius was not a problem. 

    Spring time is here, waiting for warm and not raining day to test this idea.

    Done in two steps: first made the nitric acid. Second step put drops on Nitric acid in a temperature controlled environment. 

    Although some say that it doesn't matter exact quantity I believe it just not true. I made the acid and for a test spilled a few drops on  nitrile gloves if the concentration is high it will catch fire. Although they deformed no fire. So I guess exact quantity is important.

    After two days of idle the jar with Nitric acid got red fumes.

    Probably it's wrong to store Nitric acid in such jar as fumes probably escapes a bit.

    Anyways, running with low temperature of about 62 degrees got me nowhere. I got the green thing which is dissolved copper.

    Although I was able to decap few still without bonding wires 

    This how it goes in action 

    Well, failed again... probably I should use exact rations of Sulfuric acid and Potassium nitrate.

    Funny thing was that I got two transistors I didn't use and few drops of nitric acid. It was late and I didn't want to throw it and I had no idea what to do. So, I just dropped two transistors into the acid. I did this experiment before nothing happened. To my surprise the acid got dark brown color. That means some reaction with Nitric acid. I wonder what is different?

    I will give it time and see what happens... Stay tuned

  • Method #17 -Fail

    100dollarhacker • 11/07/2024 at 23:06 • 0 comments

    Give me (more) fuel, give me (more) fire ... 

    Same as method #16 but with more powerful heating element.  

    First more heat 

    Now we can boil water in seconds

    Also made samples with exposed bonding wires.

    It will look like this

    Some refactoring needed as the stove much wider plus I'll need to cover interior with aluminum foil to better distribute heat.(I don't want cardboard to catch fire)

    It's always good idea to run dry test. 

    Compared to the old method the water started to condense almost immediately. The problem it was so hot the hot glue started to melt. I guess I need to run it on lower temperature 

    Things I did to reduce overheating:

    * Reduced power from 5 to 2 on the stove. 

    * Used iced water 

    * Covered inside with aluminum foil to spread the heat evenly 

    Plus, I am using magnetic strips to open and close the box (And holding Nitric acid, we don't want it to fall on someone's head). Made of old 3D printer magnetic surface.

    Run dry test, on water the water started to condense after few minutes and dropes were dropping in intervals of 3-5 seconds. The flask's arm was cold as I've hoped. 

    Now it's time to run real test...

    I've started just like the dry test but nothing happened. Added heat insulation and drops started to appear. Got yellow liquid with terrible smell (yellow thing disappeared after few minutes). Once I stopped stove and let it cool down a bit, I've noticed there is rain outside. Some drops must go into Nitric acid :( but I had no choice but to continue. 

    The reaction was similar to one I saw earlier on method #16. 

    After some drops were maid I've cooled off everything and noticed I got too much acid. It took me forever to kill it with sodium bicarbonate. 

    But it was kind of fun

    I still don't know if it failed because of drops of water or something else. I will re-run this experiment once never ending rain will stop. 

    Next time I will use much less Sulfuric acid. Plus I will try to put more potassium nitrate than Sulfuric acid. I have a suspicion that some of Sulfuric acid gets to output.

    The result was successful (relatively), I've added first Potassium nitrate and then a little bit of Nitric acid. Everything was the same, except the color of acid was much more yellow 

    Although I put much less Sulfuric acid I got quite a lot of Nitric acid. (Almost same amount) after 30 minutes of work. 

    This time it reacted violently with terminals setting red fumes everywhere. 

    I was able to decap easily with only few drops of Nitric acid. 

    But again there is no bond wires, maybe because it used hot surface. 

    So next time I've tried to run with lower temperature. With lower temperature the epoxy turn to material felt like mud. I guess I've ruined the bond wires while trying to dig the 'mud'. 

    Another test I am running is using Nitric acid at room temperature. After 20 hours nothing happened. 

    Maybe the temperature was too high. I didn't see the green color that usually shows when copper bond wires dissolve. (When lead frame terminals dissolve there is red color). 

    I've put my acid on copper wire after first encounter it turned green when more acid added nothing happened, so it must be because a corrosion layer. 

    Also, checked with fluck, got 10 Ohm instead of 0.2 Ohm. 

    Looks like we are on the right track.

    Then I've noticed something strange 

    I guess I knew it but ignored it. The hot plate is too hot for Nitric acid. It's just vaporized without doing anything useful, thus process is not efficient. Furthermore, this high temperature might brake bonding wire's connection. 

  • Method #16 - partial success

    100dollarhacker • 09/14/2024 at 18:59 • 0 comments

    I re-watched all the videos about making fuming Nitric acid. The first thing I thought ok, let's do it thr long (and right) way. Then, I realized that with such big flask and pipes and connectors I'll probably need full size fume chamber. Plus it will not be simple. After searching the web for different flasks I found this: 

    It gave me idea to make a different setup with same components.

    Now we have two heat sources (it's ok since we get power from same 3D printer controller) 

    So we have to add another heat source, water pump and distillation flask. Except this we have already all the components.

    Finally got the parts ☺️...

    It should look something like that 

    Plus, I need to connect water pump to cool the arm of flusk.

    Added cooling tube around the 'arm', plus, structure to hold it all together. 

    First dry test, I've poured some salty water into the flask(instead of Sulfuric acid). Some additional steps to be more efficient:

    * Added some oil in the cup, for butter heat conduction.

    * Wrapped in tin foil, otherwise condensed water get cooled off from flusk walls and goes down.

    * It took me 30-40 minutes to get first drops.

    * Used maximal temperature I can squeeze from this tiny heating element. (It's limited to 260°c by software) 

    One of the problems I've observed was creation of a bubble on the arm/output. Instead of dripping the water out it just accumulated it. It's strange given the fact that it diameter is about 3-4mm. Maybe I should lower it down to increase angle.

    Another problem was aiming at this tiny 3x3mm area milled inside the package.

    In this experiment the top opening was not closed, it got dump after while, maybe I should seal it Teflon.

    The good things were that tube and it's glue that holds it (I've used hot glue, probably not the best idea but it's good for prototyping) is not getting hot AND nothing exploded. My primary concern was that it will blow up when there is such big temperature difference. 

    No pictures except this short video 

    From dry run I've learned that it's will be hard to drop the acid right in it's place so I've added little spout from Viton rubber. (The tape should not touch the acid, it's there to maintain spoiut's V-shape)

    Now left the enclosure. For now it has lots of parts some should be removable for cleaning.

    Still haven't figured out how to make easy to remove

    Ended up with simple design 

    Most important is getting rid of sand only usong oil for better heat transfer. And socks to keep heat in

    This thing with sock on it reminds me of RHCP ;) nevermind...

    In the end I was able to produce something that looks like nitirc fume and few drops of acid. I still have to find way to make it faster.

    Place one drop on IC (no heating) was able to see some etching of epoxy.

    Trying without second heater and smaller design with better angle. I hope this will yield more acid.

    Better angle and better heat insulation resulted in more acid produced something of magnitude of few drops. Although it's much less than I expected it's good enough for me at this point as I don't need much of Nitric acid. 

    It's probably Nitric acid since Sulfuric acid's boiling temperature is 340°c and Nitiric 83°c. Plus the drops are of clear white color. (It's not water as it reacted violently with sodium bicarbonate)

    I put a drop on an IC with cavity and got nice bubbles. It was not as powerful as I expected. 

    It took me few iterations to do something and I was out of acid before I got to bonding wires.

     So I don't know if it works or not...  😕 I guess I need more powerful heating element.