A white buildup has formed on stainless steel parts after soaking in NaOH with aluminium pieces How to remove?
The stainless steel tubes have a 5mm internal diameter so i would like to use a chemical to clean them rather than brushing or sanding. Originally i thought the white substance was dried NaOH but HCl or water have not removed it. Now i am thinking that it must be some kind of aluminium deposit. Please help by identifying what may have formed or even better how to get rid of it
Aluminium metal reacts with NaOH to form a number of substances. The most common is sodium aluminate, but it is also common to form the hydroxide - Al(OH)3. This latter product is insoluble in water, but it should dissolve in acid. The choice of acid is a problem. If you are using type 304 stainless steel - or whatever the local equivalent is - do not use HCl because this grade of steel is atttacked by chloride ions. If you are using type 316 stainless - you do not have a problem in this regard. I suggest that you use H2SO4 to be safe. You need quite a concentrated solution of acid - so something like battery acid should be oK. Give it time to react.
I do not know what you were doing, but mixing NaOH with Al is not advisable, as you have discovered. Also - unless you have specific training - be careful when dealing with concentrated acids. They are dangerous.
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