Hydrochloric acid

Hydrochloric acid or muriatic acid is a colorless inorganic chemical system with the formula H2O:HCl. Hydrochloric acid has a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as strongly acidic and can attack the skin over a wide composition range, since the hydrogen chloride completely dissociates in aqueous solution. Hydrochloric acid or muriatic acid is a colorless inorganic chemical system with the formula H2O:HCl. Hydrochloric acid has a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as strongly acidic and can attack the skin over a wide composition range, since the hydrogen chloride completely dissociates in aqueous solution. Hydrochloric acid is the simplest chlorine-based acid system containing water. It is a solution of hydrogen chloride and water, and a variety of other chemical species, including hydronium and chloride ions. It is an important chemical reagent and industrial chemical, used in the production of polyvinyl chloride for plastic. In households, diluted hydrochloric acid is often used as a descaling agent. In the food industry, hydrochloric acid is used as a food additive and in the production of gelatin. Hydrochloric acid is also used in leather processing. Hydrochloric acid was discovered by the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan around the year 800 AD. It was historically called acidum salis and spirits of salt because it was produced from rock salt and 'green vitriol' (Iron(II) sulfate) (by Basilius Valentinus in the 15th century) and later from the chemically similar common salt and sulfuric acid (by Johann Rudolph Glauber in the 17th century). Free hydrochloric acid was first formally described in the 16th century by Libavius. Later, it was used by chemists such as Glauber, Priestley, and Davy in their scientific research. Unless pressurized or cooled, hydrochloric acid will turn into a gas if there is around 60% or less of water. Hydrochloric acid is also known as hydronium chloride, in contrast to its anhydrous parent known as hydrogen chloride, or dry HCl. Hydrochloric acid was known to European alchemists as spirits of salt or acidum salis (salt acid). Both names are still used, especially in other languages, such as German: Salzsäure, Dutch: Zoutzuur, Swedish: Saltsyra, Turkish: Tuz Ruhu, Polish: kwas solny, Bulgarian: солна киселина, Russian: соляная кислота, Chinese: 鹽酸, Korean: 염산, and Taiwanese: iâm-sng. Gaseous HCl was called marine acid air. The old (pre-systematic) name muriatic acid has the same origin (muriatic means 'pertaining to brine or salt', hence muriate means hydrochloride), and this name is still sometimes used. The name hydrochloric acid was coined by the French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac in 1814. Hydrochloric acid has been an important and frequently used chemical from early history and was discovered by the alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan around the year 800 AD. Aqua regia, a mixture consisting of hydrochloric and nitric acids, prepared by dissolving sal ammoniac in nitric acid, was described in the works of Pseudo-Geber, a 13th-century European alchemist. Other references suggest that the first mention of aqua regia is in Byzantine manuscripts dating to the end of the 13th century. Free hydrochloric acid was first formally described in the 16th century by Libavius, who prepared it by heating salt in clay crucibles. Other authors claim that pure hydrochloric acid was first discovered by the German Benedictine monk Basil Valentine in the 15th century, when he heated common salt and green vitriol, whereas others argue that there is no clear reference to the preparation of pure hydrochloric acid until the end of the 16th century. In the 17th century, Johann Rudolf Glauber from Karlstadt am Main, Germany used sodium chloride salt and sulfuric acid for the preparation of sodium sulfate in the Mannheim process, releasing hydrogen chloride gas. Joseph Priestley of Leeds, England prepared pure hydrogen chloride in 1772, and by 1808 Humphry Davy of Penzance, England had proved that the chemical composition included hydrogen and chlorine.