Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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DOES NITRIC ACID WORK ON ALUMINUM ?
I WANT TO ASK IF NITRIC ACID WILL WORK (ETCH)ON ALUMINIUM. OR ferric chloride ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] . I AM TRYING TO DO SOME ARTWORK ON letter SIZE PLATES. SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH , I AM WRITING FROM TIJUANA, MEXICO. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.........
SERGIO VILLAHOBBYIST - TIJUANA, MEXICO
2006
2006
Concentrated Nitric acid won't etch Aluminum.
I think lower concentration may etch Aluminium.
But if you intention is Aluminium etching, I think it will be easier if you use 20% of Sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.
- Kuala Langat, Selangor, Malaysia
Any hydroxide will work but they tend to also etch any photoresist layers. Use ~15% nitric acid and ~85% phosphoric acid. Nitric acid dissolves the aluminum oxide surface layer and phosphoric acid etches the cleanly exposed aluminum.
This mixture is used for micrometer and smaller scale etching of aluminum.
- Westbrook, Maine
2006
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