On occasion incidents occur on campus, which can serve as a learning experience for others. The copper plate was placed inside an aluminum dish and the ferric chloride was added to the dish. Once the ferric chloride was added the aluminum in the pan began to react with the ferric chloride.
Ferric chloride is very reactive with metals, which is one reason it was used to etch the copper.
Once the student saw that an uncontrolled reaction was taking place, she added water to the aluminum pan. When she added the water to the pan, the water also began to react with the ferric chloride probably producing hydrochloric acid gas. She was instructed to leave the room at this point. When DOHS responded, the material was bubbling, reacting, smoking and giving off an odor. The pan was also extremely hot.