# bleach, vinegar and salt dissolve gold



## Traveller11 (Oct 22, 2013)

bleach, vinegar and salt dissolve gold

Subject: Re: Au Reaction
From: [email protected] (Norman L. Reitzel)
Date: Apr 16 1995
Newsgroups: sci.chem

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] writes:

> Still looking for someone who can fill in this reaction for me :
>
>NaClO + CH3COOH + AU ->
>then the reaction for bubbling SO2 through the solution to precipitate the Au
>out.

This is kind of a strange reaction, and it will go much quicker if you 
add a source of chloride ions to the solution. Commercial bleach usually 
contains sodium chloride and hypochlorite both. Without chloride ions, 
the reaction takes an unusual pathway:

8NaClO + 2Au + 6HC2H3O2 --> 2NaAuCl4 + 6NaC2H3O2 + 3H2O + O2

If you have available free chloride ion, then the reaction takes a more 
mundane course, and is much faster since ClO- doesn't have to oxidize 
water to free oxygen:

6NaClO + 2NaCl + 2Au + 6HC2H3O2 --> 2NaAuCl4 + 6NaC2H3O2 + 3H2O

By bubbling sulfur dioxide through the solution, the chloroaurate is 
reduced back to metallic gold while the sulfur dioxide is oxidized to a 
plethora of sulfur species including dithionate, S2O6--. The overall 
reaction is:

6SO2 + 6H2O + 12NaC2H3O2 + 2NaAuCl4 --> 12HC2H3O2 + 3Na2S2O6 + 8NaCl

In reality, there will be a half-dozen different sulfur species present, 
everything from sulfite to sulfate and all the poly species in the middle.

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Subject: Re: Au Reaction
From: [email protected] (Norman L. Reitzel)
Date: Apr 16 1995
Newsgroups: sci.chem

In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Norman L. Reitzel ) writes:

>By bubbling sulfur dioxide through the solution, the chloroaurate is 
>reduced back to metallic gold while the sulfur dioxide is oxidized to a 
>plethora of sulfur species including dithionate, S2O6--. The overall 
>reaction is:

> 6SO2 + 6H2O + 12NaC2H3O2 + 2NaAuCl4 --> 12HC2H3O2 + 3Na2S2O6 + 8NaCl

Uh, <acute embarassment>, that reaction should also include the 
precipitated metallic gold:

6SO2 + 6H2O + 12NaC2H3O2 + 2NaAuCl4 -->
12HC2H3O2 + 3Na2S2O6 + 8NaCl + 2Au

Oh well. Typical chemical consultant. Run the reaction and keep the 
gold for himself. Apologies.

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Note: The chemical formula CH3COOH is acetic acid or vinegar. The formula HC2H3O2 is the condensed formula for acetic acid, whose systematic name is ethanoic acid. The chemical process given above is not all it takes to make this work. The author has either left these steps out, or is unaware of what else needs to be done to make this work. For example, adding any volume of an acid to sodium hypochlorite bleach (NaClO), whose pH is well over 12, will, by virtue of the lowered pH, convert the hypochlorite to hypochlorous acid (HOCl).

"He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell....Though he'd often say, in his homely way, that he'd "sooner live in Hell"....." ~~Robert W. Service~~

"When you live beside the graveyard, you can't cry for every funeral." - Russian Proverb

"Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement." ~~Will Rogers~~


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