# buying iodine/iodide



## ericrm (Mar 7, 2013)

where can one find for cheap good quality iodine/ potasium iodide? i have looked on ebay and amazon but price are horrible, any suggestion?


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 7, 2013)

> where can one find for cheap good quality iodine/ potasium iodide? i have looked on ebay and amazon but price are horrible, any suggestion?



I don't think there is any such thing.

It's always been quite expensive but here's part of the problem.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&ved=0CEwQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.justice.gov%2Farchive%2Fndic%2Fpubs1%2F1467%2F1467p.pdf&ei=Whc5UcykB8GM2gXj9YGYBA&usg=AFQjCNGeITyQtsqHabhipiF4_rxbQz-HWQ&bvm=bv.43287494,d.b2I&cad=rja


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## ericrm (Mar 7, 2013)

... that is a real bumer ... ill have to sell my other kidney now ... unless someone have some that they dont use??


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## Geraldo (Mar 7, 2013)

In the US, they are especially paranoid about meth manufacture and believe that those criminals can make hydroiodic acid from potassium iodide and such, which is, umm, "optimistic." They restrict iodine quite fiercely.

In Canada, consumers can buy Lugol's iodine solution - 5% iodine dissolved in 10% potassium iodide solution. Besides being sold for antiseptic and supplement use, it is also sold for staining starches in food chemistry labs. Pharmaceutical grade is available in "bulk", like 500ml and 1000 ml bottles. Expect to pay about $40 for 500 ml (remember, it is only 5%), so it is still expensive. A compounding lab in Quebec named "Medisca" makes quite a bit of it.

Chemical supply houses sell potassium iodide and high purity iodine. It is pricey, and you apparently require some sort of permit for the pure iodine (like you do with nitric acid).

Potassium iodide and iodine can be purchased directly from various suppliers in Chile - this is discouraged in the US, but possible for Canadians. The border people may ask you some questions. Prices can be lower, purity higher. Strangely, while Canadian chemical houses appear to require you to have a permit, the gov't doesn't appear to require you to have a permit if you import it yourself direct from Chile. This may have changed recently - I haven't looked into it in more than a year now.

Good luck! Frankly, if you don't work out a fantastic method of recovering and reusing the iodine, it becomes an exceptionally expensive process.

Best Regards, Geraldo


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## modtheworld44 (Mar 8, 2013)

ericrm said:


> where can one find for cheap good quality iodine/ potasium iodide? i have looked on ebay and amazon but price are horrible, any suggestion?



ericrm

If your wanting it for iodine leech you can probably find it like I did yesterday at your nearest farm supply store.I found two types,first type was only 1% and the other was 7% Triodine which was a ammonia and potassium iodine mix.The first one was 16oz for $5.98 and the second was 16oz for $12.99.Here's a iodine leaching patent ,I've been looking at trying myself.

http://www.google.com/patents?id=UpQfAAAAEBAJ&printsec=abstract&zoom=4#v=onepage&q&f=true

I have also read the other two abandoned patents this one is based off of.It's a very interesting read in my opinion.Hope this helps.



modtheworld44


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## Jason1 (Mar 8, 2013)

The 7% animal/farm solution was what we used in my younger/wilder days for dumber/wilder things. I remember crystallizing (I guess that's the right term) with Hydrogen Peroxide (and a drop or two of muriatic acid if I'm not mistaken). Iodine's dumber/wilder usefulness is the reason it is so hard to obtain.


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 8, 2013)

When looking for chemicals, I always get a lot of Google hits from manufacturers in China, India, etc. In these listings there is a category of iodine called "crude iodine", which I think is an impure iodine that is used to make KI and other iodine chemicals. This one from China lists it for $1-$2/kg with a 50kg minimum. Evidently, the purity of crude iodine varies and this listing says it's from 90% to 99.8%. Depending on what the impurities are, this could probably work for PM recovery if one was able to purchase it. How one would buy this stuff is beyond me. Has anyone ever dealt with these type companies? With iodine, it would probably be a giant US government hassle and the bottom line would end up a lot more than what is quoted.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/552669743/crude_iodine.html

I think the US is the 3rd largest producer of iodine and i think the main source is kelp beds. When I lived on the beach in Malibu, I could usually look out and see kelp harvesting boats near the shore. There are several iodine processing plants in the US and I think 3 of them are in Oklahoma. Maybe it is possible to buy crude iodine from them. Maybe not.


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## ericrm (Mar 8, 2013)

modtheworld44 said:


> ericrm said:
> 
> 
> > where can one find for cheap good quality iodine/ potasium iodide? i have looked on ebay and amazon but price are horrible, any suggestion?
> ...


thank you that is good to know. is there also amonia in the 1% solution? i after reading a lot of post on amonia gone boom, i try to remove it from my chemical list.


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## ericrm (Mar 8, 2013)

gsp i have send an email to the iodine guy to know what is the contaminant in the iodine, i waiting the answer. thank for the link


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## Gratilla (Mar 8, 2013)

goldsilverpro said:


> Has anyone ever dealt with these type [ie Chinese companies on www.alibaba.com] companies?



I have, although not for chemicals ... yet. This might change in the near future.

I almost hate to say this, but I found them very easy to deal with. Certainly much more so than what I'm seeing reported here for ebay.

Very responsive to inquiries, quotes and follow up. They generally accept PayPal etc and their promises for shipping etc were kept. Probably reasons why Chinese cos are doing so well.

PS The link you gave in a previous post states that it's illegal to import iodine into the US ... for anyone considering doing so.

PS2 If the minimum order qtys are on the high side, you can generally get sample quantities (for a higher price). They WANT your business.

PS3 Caveat. My experiences may not be typical!


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## ericrm (Mar 21, 2013)

i have received and answer from the seller ,that didnt answer anything ,i had ask him about impurity and delivery in canada ,all i got as an answer was to look at the description, witch doesnt answer anything... i will try with an other seller ...


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## butcher (Mar 23, 2013)

Here I can buy a gallon of iodine for treating thrush in horse hooves at the feed store, they document who buys it and turns information over to the state authorities.


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## ericrm (Mar 23, 2013)

i keep my hope high ,i just changed my game plan... rather than buy right away big quantity for cheap, i will buy very expensive small quantity to experiment with. that way for a few hundred $ i will be able to confirm if yes or no , *i* will be able to work with it.


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## ericrm (Mar 23, 2013)

does someone know if i can use stainless steal with iodine? i know iodine will react with stainless by going thru the passivation layer but will it take so long that it dont matter or will it do hole in it ? i intend while testing to try hot and cold iodine solution...


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## Aristo (Mar 23, 2013)

Eric,

I have 7 gallons of iodine. You can come over and pick it up.


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## ericrm (Mar 23, 2013)

ok thanks, i sended you a pm


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## rustbucketguy (May 22, 2013)

Hope I don't get a visit from DEA for this, but you can harvest iodine crystals from store brand generic Povidone (drug store products seem to work better than veterinarian products). First of all, dilute the product about 50/50 with water, keep all raw product in polyethylene containers such as milk jugs (Povidone contains a very aggressive solvent that turns most plastics to mush). In a container with plenty of free space, make the diluted product acidic with muriatic acid. Add household hydrogen peroxide (or better yet, spa sanitizer hydrogen peroxide) until the solution turns black. With household peroxide, the required quantity could easily be equal to, or more than, the original volume of undiluted Povidone. Let stand for about 10 minutes and slowly pour off the liquid (save the liquid). The precipitate remaining on the bottom of the container is close to pure iodine crystals; the waste liquid is essentially water, pyrollidone (the aggressive solvent), and probably a lot of remaining iodine that will stay with the pyrollidone.

Rinse the solids with multiple small rinses of cold water and add the rinse to the waste liquid. The iodine crystals are very irritating and the fumes will be very corrosive to most metals. Also, it will permanently stain almost everything it contacts.
Repeat the operation with all of the remaining portions of the original Povidone. Collect all of the washed iodine crystals together. Collect all of the waste water together.
You might want to treat the total inventory of waste water, again, as if it were raw Povidone except for the diluting 50/50 (it already contains plenty of water). Disposal of the waste water down the sink drain should not be a major issue, partly because the original Povidone bottle did not require any special handling.
Dissolve the iodine crystals in sodium hydroxide solution to get a water-white solution (it will take a lot, because that is the only source of sodium to make sodium iodide), you will probably need to provide gentle heating. You can add a significant amount of table salt, but only if the solution will NOT be used for leaching silver (the chloride will interfere and drop silver chloride).
Note that the solution at this point, is NOT active with respect to leaching of gold. Also, note that once you precipitate the iodine, you need to convert that iodine into sodium iodide within the same day. Iodine crystals are very volatile; alkaline sodium iodide is very stable (it can even be boiled down to dryness without losing the iodine). I have found acidic iodine solution to be excellent as a gold leach and the conditions can be monitored via very specific color changes, making expensive instrumentation unnecessary.


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## ericrm (May 22, 2013)

that is good to know ,thank you for the sharing


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