Recovery Cell Hazard

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PhillipJ

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
74
Location
WI
The other night I was de-plating some pins using the copper mesh basket. All of a sudden there was a 'pop" like a small firecracker. The sulphuric acid splattered out of the cell. It made quite a mess all over my work area and splattered in my face also. I am ok & all, but was surprised.

Just thought to mention that anything can happen and to always wear the safety glasses. Had I not had my glasses on it would have gone into my eyes. And always have fresh water handy.

I am clueless as to what caused it. I thought maybe a short to the cathode or a stray capacitor got in there. There was no capacitor when I emptied the cell and the copper mesh didn't have any noticable burn spots on it.
 
Now! To speak about having water handy. Just tonight I was running my cell and all of a sudden this mouse comes flyin up on top of my battery charger. Just sat there lookin at me. So's I slowly picked up my 10" hemostats and grabbed him by the tail & threw him in my bucket of water.

I might have to give up on that cell. Getting just too wierd!
 
It sure sounds like the electrodes shorted. It may have only been a microsecond and thats why the copper didn't burn. Also, there could have been a slight burn but, sitting in the sulfuric could have cleaned it.

Shorting is very easy to do when using the basket and shifting it around in those small cells. If I were to set up a cell for my own use, I would have at least 4" spacing between electrodes.

I've never been a fan of safety glasses. They get scratched or fog up and are hard to see out of. To me, they are very uncomfortable. They protect the eyes but not the entire face. I much prefer a full plastic face shield.
 
They protect the eyes but not the entire face. I much prefer a full plastic face shield. :idea: :wink:

Dam good point Chris. I to am guilty of this. Think i will get me an apron to. Never hurts to be extra safe.
 
Another thought i have been wondering. Are their any metals ( precious or not ) that are reactive and dissolved in sulfruic acid acid when an electrical current is applied. Not just in the basket. Say take the basket away and just leave the leads. Then if something where dropped in it would dissolve.
where it would not without current.

Part of Project Aflac. :wink:
 
I am mainly speaking electrolytically.

Strong sulfuric is almost saturated by itself. The stronger it is, the less the base metals (copper, etc.) will dissolve. in it. As you add a little water to it, the more the base metals will dissolve in it. For mysterious chemical reasons, silver is different. The stronger the sulfuric, the more silver will dissolve in it. Gold never really dissolves in it. It dissolves, for a nano second and then precipitates out as a fine metal powder. Strong sulfuric and weak sulfuric are two different animals.

Without current, hardly anything will dissolve in just strong sulfuric, except your skin or, when hot, silver.
 
Phillip3,

I can duplicate your experience at will and have done so many times on purpose using excessive amps in a cell trying to understand the cause of this. I created a lot larger bubbles at the cathode side and the anode side because I quit using glycerine and created a lot more.

These larger bubbles combined with a spark from hemostats etc. rubbing on the contact strip will pop everytime, sounding much like a 22 caliber rifle being fired.

I believe we are creating a small amount of oxygen in the bubbles at the cathode side and a small amount of hydrogen in the bubbles at the anode side. More bubbles = more danger of explosion.The bubbles are like temporary containers for the hydrogen and oxygen! Although the bubbles created without glycerine tend to be larger and thicker walled, we probably create the same amount of hydrogen either way but with glycerine the bubbles are smaller so they burst faster and it dissipates faster.

We could look at our goldrefining cells as hydrogen fuel cells on the anode side or oxygen generators on the cathode side. Basically what we are doing is electrically cracking the water molecules in our sulphuric into its respective hydrogen and oxygen atoms where the hydrogen atoms are attracted to the anode and the oxygen atoms to the cathode. Which explains why we have bubbles in our cells at all.

Reducing the surface tension is the only good reason I know to use glycerine in cells.

Reducing the amps will reduce hydrogen production rates. Using less water in our cells would reduce the amount of hydrogen we can produce. Trying not to create sparks around our hydrogen bubbles would also help. I didn't start having the same problem with little explosions in my cell until I started using a basket with larger amounts of metal.

Wayne
 
austexjwlry said:
Reducing the surface tension is the only good reason I know to use glycerine in cells.



Wayne

Glycerine's contain lipids, These promote oxidation in chemical reactions.
 
Aflac,

So when you electrically stimulate or excite the, say, silver atoms in the metal plating you're effectively breaking the bond of interconnecting shared electrons between them by supplying an excess of free electrons from the electricity and then the sulphuric or lipids oxidize them or tie up any free electrons chemically so the silver atoms can't or won't reconnect to each other? And from this point we treat our metals chemically to refine?

Perhaps when we say that the gold or silver is temporarily dissolved in the cell, should we say that its temporarily free of electrical connections to other atoms at the atomic level in the form of shared electrons because of the excess free electrons supplied by our electricity?

Wayne
 
Thanks for the explanations for using glycerin in the stripping cell and also the comments on concentrated verses dilute sulfuric acid. I wondered how a copper mesh wouldn't just get dissolved in the acid. I expect it still will to some degree and also will plate or precipitate from the lead cathode.

Would any silver be included in the used acid to be recovered later or would it be included with the gold or a little of both?
 
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