Acid Test!! Chemicals for cleaning up after leaking alkaline batteries.

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In this video we play amateur chemist and take a look at how to clean up PCBs that have been damaged by leaking alkaline batteries. We have all experienced the horror of opening up a piece of vintage gear that had the AA batteries left in it or which was made with a NiCad battery soldered to the PCB.

Both types of batteries use an electrolyte that is alkaline, it is corrosive but opposite of acids on the Ph scale. I’m not a real chemist, nor do I play one on TV but let’s jump right in and find out how to clean up this sort of mess.
In a future episode we’ll look at how to clean up the mess from leaking electrolytic capacitors whose electrolytes are actually acidic so require a different method to neutralize than the alkaline batteries we dealt with today.

Timeline:
00:37 – Oh the Horror
03:04 – Motivation
05:35 – Vinegar vs. Citric Acid
09:48 – Liquid Citric Acid vs. gelled Citric Acid
14:33 – Practical application
15:28 – Bad to worse
17:03 – Conclusion

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Credits
Chiptune Thing No. 3 "Victory" by Steven O’Brien   / stevenobrien  
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0
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Music provided by Music for Creators    • Chiptune Thing No .3 Victory — Steven O’Brien