# Palladium pins



## kelly (Jul 17, 2009)

For some reason, I'm running into more Palladium than gold these days. I have some steel pins that are plated with palladium. I'm planning on soaking them in HCL to remove any solder, followed by rinsing and incinerating to remove the HCL, then using conc. nitric to disolve the Pd. Since the nitric is concentrated, it shouldn't greatly effect the steel, right? I plan on dropping the Pd with copper after that.
Could I use silver to drop the Pd? (I don't mind if the Ag and Pd mix at this point.)
Suggestion? Comments?
Thanks,
K


----------



## lazersteve (Jul 17, 2009)

Depending on the thickness of the palladium plating on the pins straight HCl may dissolve some of it, especially if it has oxidized or if the HCl is hot. Be sure you test your HCl washes with stannous before you dispose of the wash solution.

Steel dissolves well in dilute sulfuric acid if you want to avoid the expense of nitric.

Steve


----------



## kelly (Jul 18, 2009)

I like the idea of sulfuric.... I should be left with palladium foils then, right?


----------



## Lino1406 (Jul 18, 2009)

Try HCl (or H2SO4) with H2O2 (A/P process)
to dissolve iron a base metal.


----------

