Identification of acids like CuCl2

I just came in possesion of 8 jerry cans, filled with a blue and green liquid. According to the previous owner it has to be silver nitrate, copper nitrate, and copper II chloride, and some vinegar copper II chloride.

But he did not label anything, and just wanted to toss it out as being lost. Can you guys help me out identifying the liquids, with some sort of testing ?

The silver nitrate has been used for cementing silver, so there is not much silver left is my guess, so what to do with the silver nitrate, once I am certain it is exactly that.

So my question is

- How can I recognize what liquid it is, copper II chloride or copper / silver nitrate ?
- Is there any use left for the remaining copper nitrate ?

A question and a hint... what do you get when mixing silver nitrate with something containing chloride ions?

I think it's time to push for more training exercises.
http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/Hoke_acquaintance_experiments

Göran

Hi Göran, a weak AR solution that will precipitate silver chloride, I was playing with that thought as well, but I forgot to mention there is also at least 1 jerrycan with Copper II Suplhate, that was intented for copper refining, so there are 3 different liquids.

Since I have about 10 pounds of recovered copper, I would like to identify and use the copper II sulphate for electrorefining the recovered copper because I know there is some precious metals in there, from failed projects, overuse of H2O2, and other beginner mistakes.

- copper II chloride
- copper nitrate from silver nitrate after removing almost all the silver
- copper II sulphate for electrorerefining

I should of mentioned it, at the start of my post.. But, the copper nitrate and copper chloride can be mixed and dilluted with fresh HCL to the point where it pushes out all other metals, however the copper sulphate I would like to keep, to give the electrorefining of copper a go.

How will iron react with a weak and dilluted AR solution to recover the copper at the end ?
And how to identify the copper II suplhate since the H2SO4 will also make it very acitic ?
I just need confirmation on taking the right steps, becasue I am looking at 11 jerrycans each filled with 5 liters of green and blue liquids, and sometimes it's getting a bit overwhelimg, like why did I even take this on... :lol:

I just opened a smaller 2.5L can, and there is a very strong ammonia smell, and this liquid is blue / purple, with a PH around 12. No idea what the heck it is, but since it is ammonia (or it smells like it) I am very cautious, as I know some compounds with ammonia can explode under some circumstances,
Any thoughts on how to proceed with this mess ?

I can think of a few quick tests you could do.

Get a few "standard" solutions of these made up.
1)silver nitrate
2)barium nitrate or barium chloride
-2b)lead nitrate (if barium is hard to obtain)
3)ferrous sulphate and sulfuric acid.

1, use silver nitrate solution to test if the bucket is AR/copper chloride. (not too great of a test, as any chlorides will give a false positive, say for instance if he used tap water to make his copper sulphate)

2) barium or lead nitrate mixed with sulphate will give insoluble lead sulfate

3) the brown ring test, mix a little ferrous sulphate solution with the questionable nitrate, add a wee bit of sulfuric acid and it will evolve a brown ring where they meet.
-https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrate_test


*and a website for 1 and 2
http://www.docbrown.info/page13/ChemicalTests/ChemicalTestsa.htm#Sulphate
Terrible layout, but great information contained in it.

Or you could just say "nope! Heck with it" and put iron in every bucket, cement out the copper and other metals. Clean up the copper cement mix, melt and cast into anodes, then reclaim any values in the sludge from your copper cell.

Could also use electrolysis to remove the majority of metals.
But, that is kind of a pain to set up and get the right working conditions (has been for me, so far, anyways)

Just a precaution, your friend didn't use cyanide, right? If he did then you have a death trap in front of you.
If you suspect there might be cyanide in this lot, DO NOT ADD ANY ACIDS TO IT!!!

Bluebloomer said:

I just opened a smaller 2.5L can, and there is a very strong ammonia smell, and this liquid is blue / purple, with a PH around 12. No idea what the heck it is, but since it is ammonia (or it smells like it) I am very cautious, as I know some compounds with ammonia can explode under some circumstances,
Any thoughts on how to proceed with this mess ?

Click to expand...

Acidify it, add HCl until pH is below 7, then it's safe. If you get a white precipitate it should be silver chloride, filter it off and recover the silver from it.

As people have already said, cementing on copper or iron is the way to go with a mess, it just needs to be acidic at first.

But use stannous chloride to test your mess and also check pH, just to get a feeling of how much acid there is left.

Göran