# Which metal leaves orange powder when dissolved in nitric acid



## JohnGinto (Aug 9, 2018)

Hello all, 
Just have a quick question. 
Which metal leaves orange powder when dissolved in nitric acid? Today I placed a small amount of mixed gold plated parts in nitric acid as an experiment to see the reaction. However the result had me puzzled when the solution turned orange in color and left an orange powder at the bottom of the beaker with the gold foils and fine powder. 
Cheers,
Johno


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## jimdoc (Aug 9, 2018)

You should be studying the forum, and not experimenting.


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## JohnGinto (Aug 9, 2018)

Thanks. 
That's really very helpful...


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## Palladium (Aug 9, 2018)

Iron!


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## butcher (Aug 9, 2018)

Depending on concentration several metals will passivate in HNO3, such as Iron, Cobalt, Nickel, and aluminum...
The color of the powders may or may not be an indicator of what they are, the only way to know for sure is through testing...

Heck our skin will turn yellow with nitric acid and then turn orange when neutralized.
I have seen Arsenic compounds turn yellow and orange in HNO2 or HNO3...
compounds like chromates, sulphurets of cadmium...

JimDoc was trying to be helpful and gave great advice experimenting without basic understanding is just dangerous.


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## JohnGinto (Aug 9, 2018)

Thank you. 
That was much more informative. 
He just assumed that I didn't know what I was doing. 
It sounded more like a lecture than a helpful advice. 
The purpose of experimenting is to understand the process and study the results. 
Just because I am experimenting does not mean I am being calous and dangerous. 
I understand that the question I asked was probably asked a million times over. 
However when I searched the forum for a similar situation I didn't make sense of it. 
Hence I asked the next logical question. 
But anyway thank you for your response. 
By the way being new to the community I am still navigating my way around the forum. 
Cheers, 
John


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## butcher (Aug 10, 2018)

John, 
You will find jimdoc's to be very helpful in his answers, personally, I would take his advice any day even if it was not what I wished to hear.
In-fact if taken to the bank, I feel his advice was worth more than what I posted earlier.

May I suggest before experimenting with acids and metals, that a member should spend his time studying, gaining an understanding of what to expect, how metals react with acids and alkalies, what metals and acids or basic solutions become dangerous when mixed and in what situations they are dangerous or explosive...

Read Hoke's book first, then work on the getting acquainted experiments (she walks you through them, which will explain much of the chemistry where a layman can understand it), if done, your questions would have already been answered, this one and a thousand more questions you can think of to ask.

Study each metal, and chemical you intend to use and gain an understanding of reactions, dangers, precautions. Safety should be studied before using an acid or any other chemical.
There are reactions we use in recovery and refining that can easily become explosives, deadly gases, metal ions that will poison you, and contaminate the environment they come in contact with and poison others.

Recovery and refining is not something you read a little about and start experimenting with, this is a field you can spend your whole life studying and only gain a glimpse of its scope.



Experimenting with chemistry without educating yourself besides being a waste of time, it is just dangerous.

How is that for a lecture????


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## nickvc (Aug 10, 2018)

While I understand the urge to mess with acids and metals as Butcher pointed out it really needs to be after plenty of reading to understand exactly what to expect and why and any possible dangers you may be exposing yourself to. As Butcher also alluded to you could study recovery and refining for a lifetime and still not know more than perhaps 50% of what there is to know so while some of the answers people receive may sound harsh they really aren’t, we don’t want anyone to harm themselves or their family, pets, neighbors or the environment.
Stop trying experiments and study, you can do this but it takes a long time to know which process is best suited to each type of scrap and how to process each from start to finish, to put this in context we had another member who ignored what he was told who poisoned himself very badly and we are not sure if he survived as we haven’t heard from him since he admitted what he had done :shock:


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## artart47 (Aug 10, 2018)

Hi my Friend!
Long ago I remember doing the gold recovery from ceramic cpu's in hot AR. I got the gold dropped from the dirty solution and it had an orange powder in it. I found in the search and was told be some of the members respondses that the gold caps are a sintered tungsten and the powder was tungsten that dropped fron the solution. A couple re-refining's removed it.
Per-haps it was the nitric salt of the tungsten? Hope this helps
Art.


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## JohnGinto (Aug 22, 2018)

Thank you all for the replies... 
I have read C.M Hoke's book and some other. 
Have been getting myself acquainted with how some metals react with acids. 
Please note that I am not a wild cowboy riding on a bull blindfolded and not seeing how big the beast is. 
I am careful and precise...
When I said "Experiment" it didn't mean I just threw everything together and watch it just for the heck of it. 
I meant I had mixed materials which I processed but was taken aback when I saw a different result from the one I was expecting. I had an idea but wanted to ask others out incase it was something else. 
Before I started to begin the recoveries, I converted half of my shed into a mini lab complete with a hood and wet and dry area. All chemicals are stored in a safe dry place away from children and animals. All waste are treated before discarded. I admit I am a novice and don't mind being lectured as it's all part of the learning process. However there is an educated way to lecture than assume the one being lectured is clueless... 
Perhaps I should have been more clear with my question. 
Anthony, no worries, all is good. 
And yes it was IRON... 
Cheers, 
Johno


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## nickvc (Aug 22, 2018)

Johno 
Not all warnings are meant just for the OP but for others who may read this thread later.
I’m glad you have set yourself up a lab and I hope you get to process lots of material there in safety.
The one mistake you admitted was processing different types of material together rarely a good idea with e scrap as depending on the base metals present it can and will make one unholy mess if your unlucky , anything that contains tin will cause problems as we have all read about and seen in most cases.
Try to gather decent quantities of each type of scrap to process individually and read about the processes that work for others on each type and then pick the one that suits what you have and can get, we have many work around processes detailed here on the forum as many members struggle to get the chemicals they want.


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## butcher (Aug 23, 2018)

Iron can be confused with gold or even platinum in our chemical reactions, Hokes Book gives two different tests to identify iron in solution, page 100.

Johno, 
We have no way of knowing which members saw some youtube process and ran out and bought a bunch of acids and chemicals and started experimenting in their garage or basement, what safety measures or study of the reactions they have under their belt, and how much they have studied the dangers involved.
Which member has done their due diligence before experimenting and is progressing in their study with educated experiments.

We see many clueless people join with a dangerous mess and no clue of where to begin. many times members try to help them out of the mess, others of us try to get the person on the road to understanding the dangers, and try to show them that educating themselves is the real treasure in this field. 

How much is a few grams of gold worth, recovered from electronic's/crap when it comes to our health and safety and the well being of those around us?

The more I learn, the more dangers I see, the more I understand the dangers the more I understand the chemistry of recovery and refining of precious metals.

Johno,
Welcome to the forum, It is great to hear you are seriously studying and are becoming aware of some of these dangers, Many of the answers given are not just meant for the person asking the questions, they are also to help other members who read the threads, or to get them thinking about studying, before they begin playing mad scientist with no understanding of the dangers involved.


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## g_axelsson (Aug 24, 2018)

For every member asking questions there is a hundred that only reads the answers on the forum or via a google search.

Göran


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## JohnGinto (Aug 26, 2018)

Many, many, many thanks for all the replies... 
There it was and is very helpful on my road to my quest in escrap recovery. I apologize if I seemed arrogant in my reply to anyone is the thread. I wish to become as well informed and helpful and be able to also provide positive contribution to the community. 
Cheers,
Johno


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