# Different colors cemented silver



## Slochteren (Sep 5, 2015)

Hi,

I have processed sterling silver and cemented with copper with a dark grey cement as result as normal, on the picture right.
I have processed plated silverware with 95/5 mix off sulfur and nitric. (i have been very carefull as i know its a dangerous mix special wenn its hot). Wenn it was saturated i "dropped" the silver with Salt. Added Zink to the silver chloride and stired well till all chloride change color from light violet to grey.
After drying it is very light grey (foto left), is this because its much cleaner as wenn dropped with copper?


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## MarcoP (Sep 5, 2015)

The silver chloride route produce indeed a cleaner silver. Try to boil the dark one (copper cemented) in water, get a sample and add ammonium hydroxide, if it turns blue (copper) rinse and boil again till ammonium hydroxide additions doesn't get any color change.


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## 4metals (Sep 5, 2015)

It all comes down to your overall plan. If you intend to operate a cell, then cementation is quick and expedient. Plus you can be careful and get over 99% purity with copper cementation. But if you are not planning on a cell, the silver chloride sugar reduction method will give you the highest purity, you can get .999 fine silver with sugar reduction, it just requires a lot of rinsing.


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