A poorly ventilated basement is the absolute worst place I can think of to produce chlorine gas. Chlorine is significantly denser than air, meaning that it will tend to settle to the lowest place available, and will slowly displace the air there. Over time, you would be turning your basement into a gas chamber.
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> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> From: nathan_h_tna@...
> Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:05:11 +0000
> Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: How to dispose of etchant?
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> Thanks for helping me understand what precautions I need to take when using this stuff.
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> From what I've read, it looks like mixing the hydrochloric acid (hydrogen chloride (HCL) in water) with peroxide (H2O2) and then putting copper in it produces cucl2, which eventually becomes cucl (which doesn't eat copper?), and that's why peroxide needs to keep being added – to regenerate the oxygen and make it cucl2 again. Is that basically correct?
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> This chemical reaction produces chlorine gas which is not explosive – so I guess I don't need to be worried about the nearby gas furnace (if that should have even been a concern in the first place) – but is apparently not good to breathe. Exactly how bad is it to breathe this stuff, though? I've read several places that repeated exposure could cause serious health conditions.. Should I buy a respirator to filter out the chlorine fumes? (Remember, I'm using this in my basement which doesn't have very good ventilation).
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> What type of protective equipment should be worn?
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> What should I do if I spill some of this (or a lot of it) on the workbench or floor, or on myself for that matter?
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> Concerning the storage of the etchant, it seems like the two possibilities are using a glass container or a plastic container. Some people have said that plastic containers will fail eventually, but the problem with a glass container is that if it gets dropped it will break. What type of container would you recommend I store this in?
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> One last thing is that the MSDS sheet for Hydrochloric acid says, "Forms flammable hydrogen gas on contact with metals." Does what we're doing form hydrogen gas? Because that IS explosive..
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> So, to recap:
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> 1) How bad is breathing the chlorine gas? (e.g. should I purchase a respirator?).
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> 2) What protective equipment should I wear?
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> 3) What should I do if I spill it?
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> 4) How should I store it?
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> 5) Should be I worried about the hydrogen byproduct?
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> Thank so much!
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