# X-Ray Fixer Help



## Anonymous (Feb 3, 2010)

Hi there 

I have found about 200 liter of spend x-ray fixer .

How do I convert it either to metal or siver nitrate , I have the silver nitrate process under control ( have this forum to thank ) .


Lawrence


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank (Feb 4, 2010)

Lawrence:

"THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO SKIN THE CAT".(These words are not mine,they own The Great Master,wolrdwide known as GSP but I like them)

The fastest and most expensive way is to buy an electrolytical cell,just process your fixer as told it in your machine´s manual and you will get metallic silver (0.95),melt it with some potassium nitrate and you will get 0.995 silver.

The cheapest way is sodium sulphide process,just add it to you fixer,stir for a while and you will see that a black precipitate is formed(knowing the silver content it is a must,because if you add more sodium sulphide than needed you will form nasty hydrogen sulphide),let it settle down for a night,then pour off the liquid,filtter the black powder,dry it and melt it as I told in a post named "How to convert silver sulphide to metallic silver".

Are not you satisfied?...OK.... do not be angry,here are some other processes:

If you add sodium chlorate to your fixer then you will destroy the silver thiosulfate complex and white silver chloride will be formed,but you have to add a hig quantity of sodium chlorate to destroy the fixer completely,otherwise the silver chloride formed will be dissolved again.Sodium chlorate is expensive and explosive,in some countries is banned.

The same action could be done adding 30% hydrogen peroxide to your fixer,again,30% hydrogen peroxide is expensive,it is a strong oxidant and hard to find in some countries.

May I ask you about the silver concentration of your fixer?,in gr/lt?.

Where do you live in South Africa?.

Have a nice day.

Manuel


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