lazersteve said:
I'm real curious why the SMD dropped this powder. Could this be a pH reaction?
When nothing happened I tried for the gold which appeared to be in the solution from the stannous test. The powder formed.
Some time ago, both Chris and I commented on the book published by George Gadja. In it, as I recall, he talked about precipitating palladium with SO2. While everything he said, to me, was nonsense, and did not support my experiences in the least, I now wonder if the yellow salt is palladium. It may precipitate yellow by his suggested method (I never tried it that way, so don't have a clue). That's why I suggested you dissolve a tiny amount and test it with stannous chloride---the test would be conclusive.
As for looking for gold, while I'm not suggesting you didn't have any in solution, the test you showed could easily confuse as being gold, but is nothing more than palladium. That's why it's so important to have DMG---which would precipitate all the palladium when you tested, allowing you to then test the solution for other values. Tests such as this are best carried out with the use of a spot plate. If you had gold present as well, the palladium, now fully precipitated in an insoluble form, would test barren, or show gold without the palladium reaction. You must get some DMG-----it is essential to your operation and would have been the perfect way to make this determination.
The question I have now is did your procedure precipitate the palladium from what was a solution that was too dilute to precipitate, and would not have precipitated at all had you not followed up as you did. I can't tell you the number of times I had both platinum and/or palladium in solution and failed to achieve precipitation. You finally come to terms with the fact that it won't happen, and turn to recovery, routinely, in the stock pot.
If you have enough curiosity to pursue this matter further, you can try calcining a tiny amount of the salt. Hoke discusses that adequately. If it is palladium, and you work slowly, so you don't lose the metal in the fumes, when it's finished it will show beautiful peacock colors plus pink. That's the oxides that form when you reduce the salt in the atmosphere. I used to use a Fisher burner with a quartz dish for the calcining process. Don't breath the fumes!
Harold