Quote:
Originally Posted by boris1020
Pour baking soda on the spilled fluids and on the inside of the bin to absorb the leaking fluids. Once soda-tized, the acid will be in two non-caustic components (I don't know what they are, I just know they're non-caustic) and can be cleaned up with the paper towels. Go safety!
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This is not completely accurate and is a common misconception. The typical acid inside of a sealed lead acid battery like we use is sulfuric acid (H
2SO
4). The active ingredient of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate (Na
2CO
3). Sulfuric acid is a strong acid (in that it completely disassociates [ionizes]) and sodium bicarbonate is a weak base (it does not completely disassociate). Ignoring the buffers and electrolytes in the battery acid to stabilize the ongoing chemical reactions, we can view the reaction of spilled acid mixed with the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) in the reaction below.
H
2SO
4 + Na
2CO
3 ---> Na
2SO
4 + H
2O + CO
2
The result of the reaction is the carbon dioxide bubbling off and water forming, in addition to the sodium sulfate salt as the sodium bicarbonate is neutralized with the sulfuric acid. Though sodium sulfate on its own is not harmful, in the case, because of the strong acid/weak base reaction, the pH of the resulting product will still be in the acidic range, closer to neutral than the acid alone, but still acidic.
Care should still be taken when handling the acid/base mixture and should be disposed of appropriately to avoid contamination. Also immediate washing should be done if contact occurs with skin or clothing. Again after disposing of waste, hands and any possibly contacted areas should be washed as a precaution.
One final thing I will suggest to keep in battery spill kits is a pair of splash proof safety goggles. Eye protection should always be work when around hazardous chemicals and cleaning up hazardous spills/waste.