# Silver Chloride



## shadybear (Jun 20, 2007)

I know I read everywhere that you should avoid silver chloride.

But, maybe not.

How do you purify silver chloride?
I saw some ads on ebay asking 25 dollars for 25 grams

Will silver chloride go into Aqua Regis?
I ask because it seems when I nitric plated items with copper base to it I get a lot of white powder that settles in the nitric with the gold flakes.


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## Noxx (Jun 20, 2007)

Silver Chloride will form when you dissolve gold (or other metals containing silver) Silver is NOT soluble in AR (or very barely). It will forms an oxide called Silver Chloride.

As far as I know, you can't get silver Chloride by dissolving metals with Nitric Acid. Silver is soluble in Nitric. Once you dissolved silver, use regular table salt to precipitate it out.


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## lazersteve (Jun 20, 2007)

shadybear said:


> How do you purify silver chloride?



Shady, 

Silver chloride can generally be 'purified' by washing with hot water to remove the water soluble chlorides and by washing with diluted sulfuric acid to remove any lead chloride. 

I think you might have meant to ask this question:

*How do you make silver metal from silver chloride?* 

If so here's that answer also:

One way is shown in this tutorial video:

Silver from Silver Chloride

I believe Harold has also mentioned using HCl and Aluminum foil to return the silver back to it's metallic state.

There are other ways as well.

Steve


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## shadybear (Jun 20, 2007)

No I meant to say purify silver chloride.

Just seemed to me 1 dollar a gram for the silver chloride compared to the value of silver metal in the same weight of silver chloride


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## goldsilverpro (Jun 20, 2007)

You would have to start with pure silver - 999.9 fine.


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## lazersteve (Jun 20, 2007)

GSP,

Any ideas why a buyer would want pure silver chloride?

Steve


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## goldsilverpro (Jun 20, 2007)

Here's what the eBay ad says: #220099210251. 

Silver Chloride Uses:
-As a laboratory reagent.
-Waterproof infrared lenses. It can be compressed into durable translucent shapes.
-Preparation of Ultra Pure Silver Metal. (Smelted with Soda Ash: 1:1 Molar ratio, 1112F, 1 hour). *MY NOTE*: The parameters given here are quite interesting!
-A precursor to the preparation of Silver (II) Oxide, Ag2O. (It is heated in dilute NaOH solution).
-In Photography, as a sensitizer, but to a much lesser extent than Silver Bromide.
-Electroplating - both electroless and as an anode in an electric cell.
-Inquartation in electric arc furnaces - smelting Gold and Platinum Group Metals.
-As a thin coating on the surface of Medical Electrodes for EKG machines. (Placed against the skin).
-Antibacterial agent for concrete ( 1 Lb Silver Chloride per cubic yard of Concrete (4,050 lbs) ).
-Used as an anti microbial agent in some infection resistant surgical fabric materials.
-Used to help prevent bacteria from growing on Latex (mixed into the Latex before it is formed).
-Used to help prevent bacteria from growing on Glass (when melted into the glass).
-Decorative etching of high quality steel. (Apply damp Silver Chloride to steel, let stand for several hours).

Making acceptable pure AgCl is much more difficult than it appears. I was slightly involved in this several years ago. It has to be made in the dark or under a ruby-red light, to prevent reduction to silver (purple). It is made by starting with pure silver, dissolving in nitric, dropping with hydrochloric, and boiling. It is then dissolved with ammonia and re-dropped with hydrochloric. This may have to be repeated several times.

About the only time I've seen it in scrap (besides on film), it was used as one of the electrodes in large silver military batteries. It had been melted and cast into a sheet form. I also seem to remember seeing it used, in cast form, on some sort of electronic or aircraft part.


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## aflacglobal (Jun 20, 2007)

Batteries ? I had a couple of pallets of battries from johnson that the old man had stored in the back of the space junk. I cut one open and it looked like plates with massive corrosion from acid like a termial post.
I took it for just that. I hope i didn't let those get by to. I threw about 200-300 away. big cells, made into banks. They were heavy come to think of it, But i though lead.

Was i wrong ??

Ralph


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## Brandon/kelly (Oct 4, 2013)

I was reading over some of our silver articles when I seen this section. I decided to read it as I have had a good bit of Silver Chloride building up in my waste drums. I was always under the impression there was no use for Silver Chloride that it was just waste. However, after reading this section then doing a little research on the internet now I am convinced I have been wrong for a long time. Therefore, I thought I would post something I found on the subject as well as a link that points to a very interesting article on the subject as well as tests they ran. For you all to see to get you’re all’s opinion, advice, or even you’re all’s knowledge on this.

From some the things I have read here are some other things Silver Chloride is used for.

-Silver Chloride is mainly used for making photographs it is used to make photographic paper since it reacts with photons to form latent image and via photo reduction.
-Silver Chloride is used in photographic film. It darkens when exposed to light, which makes a picture.
-Silver Chloride is also used in electrochemistry on the silver chloride electrode.
-Silver Chloride is used in bandages and wound healing products as a disinfected.
-Silver Chloride is also used to make stained glass.
-Silver chloride has a use as an infra-red Tran’s missive optical component as it can be hot-pressed into window and lens shapes. [4]
-Silver chloride's low solubility makes it a suitable addition to pottery glazes for the production of "In glaze lustre".
-Silver chloride has been used as an antidote for mercury poisoning, assisting in the elimination of mercury.
-Silver chloride is often used in photochromic lenses, again taking advantage of its reversible conversion to silver (Ag) metal.
-Silver chloride is used to create yellow, amber, and brown shades in stained glass manufacture.
-Silver chloride is used as an antimicrobial agent in some personal deodorant products.
-Silver chloride is used as an antimicrobial agent for long-term preservation of drinking water in water tanks.



Recovery of Silver from and Some Uses for Waste Silver Chloride

by: J. A. Murphy, A. H. Ackerman, and J. K. Heeren
Trinity College, Hartford. CT 06106


http://library.deerfield.edu/pdfs/ChemAgAckerman.pdf


This is a real good article on this so I thought it would fit in here well, and maybe help us all not sure if anyone has seen this before or not.


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