Typo: more OFTEN than not!
Writing this on a phone is a pain. I promise I know English!
My setup: 2 metal pans, one perforated inside the other, separated from contact by a piece of plastic but electrolyte solution can move freely between the 2.
Perforated pan has scrap material in contact, I've decided not to powder it or anything, the logic being that a whole circuit should be electronically connected to all metal parts. Some chips have been removed however. Whatever I deemed to not contain precious metal has been taken off.
I have a limited supply of nitric acid but excess hydrochloric acid so my ar has a heavy bias towards hcl. The anode is the perforated pan, the cathode the pan containing everything. I attached a photo. I keep mixing up anode and cathode because my transformer doesn't tell me which wire is the positive.
This setup produces a black powder that melts to a small amount of metal that streaks gold but dissapears quickly under nitric. Im guessing 1-10% gold. Idon't know how dilute. When I get more I'll get its density to see what I really have.
Do you know the majority of PCB components are
semi conductors? Meaning they only conduct when e.g. a current is put on the gate so the collector and emitter can let current through? And resistors do not help evenly distributing current and sufficient voltage to all plated parts. Capacitors let some DC current through, until saturated. Diodes are a one way street.
At best I guess you will be able to strip 10% of all pm's from the boards this way.
Then: metal in an electrolytical cell is
dissolved at the anode, and
deposited on the cathode. So mark your positive lead with something (red) and hook that up to the anode. (basket with metal to be stripped)
Does the transformer have a rectifier? If not, you won't be able to use it for electrolysis. You need DC current.
AR dissolves most metals without electrolysis, but pushing electrons through a metal in an electrolyte will dissolve much more elements than without the added current. You need an oxidizer strong enough to dissolve a metal. Only salt water and electric current can be enough for some metals, where strong acids fail.
Electrolysis with HCL is usually not a good idea, due to the chlorine gas that is created. If you can mitigate that risk you could be fine.
Time for some reflection i must say:
https://goldrefiningforum.com/threa...imple-question-and-get-a-simple-answer.21412/
All together I conclude you are trying to take shortcuts due to a lack of understanding and this process you suggest
will not work.
AR dissolves gold without current, so why add current?
Dissolving gold in the presence of PCB's is a bad idea. you will loose some gold to the capillary effect of the fiber boards.
One more comment here would be: have some respect for the people providing you with answers for free in their spare time. Yggdrasil knows his stuff and is very well certified imo.
We get a lot of 'professors' here, reinventing the wheel, who will admit after some time they seriously underestimated the processes and complexity of this craft. Start with known processes, and once that becomes routine, you can start experimenting.
So stop and study. a much given, and equally hated advice, but there you have it.
Be safe and have fun!
Before you do anything, please suggest it for us to review. It will save you on a lot of trouble and possibly health.
Martijn.
After a while while your dictionary / autocorrect will speak GRF-terminology.
