# elecrolyte solution?



## adamc (Jul 21, 2013)

I am working on my first batch of silver. So far everything is going pretty well. a few things about the solution and the cell are unclear to me though. Can I dissolve some of my cemented silver anodes to make the nitrate or are they not pure enough? assuming that will work, I then dissolve the crystals of silver nitrate into distilled water and that's it???


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## Geo (Jul 21, 2013)

cemented silver will work fine for electrolyte. its recommended to have a very small amount of copper present to make the crystals more dense. the cemented silver should have all the copper you will need. just dissolve as much cemented silver as it will hold into the amount of electrolyte you need. i may be wrong on this but, i believe i read that you can use diluted nitric acid to make the electrolyte. if im right, it can be as low as 10% nitric acid.

could you remove the double post.


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## adamc (Jul 21, 2013)

thank you. I'm trying to figure out how to remove the double now. thanks again


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## niteliteone (Jul 21, 2013)

You got it right Geo.
I have been playing with growing Silver Crystals and found that with about 0.25% copper in the electrolyte I get the best large crystal formations to grow.

In the picture are some large crystals with a half dollar for size comparison


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## adamc (Jul 22, 2013)

thank you guys both so much. I'm going to order the silver A to Z video tonight. I still have a couple things to pic up to get this project rolling. hopefully I'll have some pictures for you by the weekend.


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## kadriver (Jul 24, 2013)

Hello,

I have used cement silver to make silver cell electrolyte and it worked fine, but use care in how you dissolve the cement silver - make sure and melt the cement silver and pour the molten silver into cold tap water to form flakes/shot before you dissolve it in dilute nitric acid for your electrolyte.

It will take a little longer, but this will ensure that any chlorides, and possibly other contaminants, are driver off before you dissolve the silver in dilute nitric acid.

One time I had some chlorides in the cement silver. It would dissolve perfectly and look crystal clear, until I added the distilled water - the solution turned cloudy.

I was baffled. To solve the problem I was instructed (by Harold) to melt the cement silver and pour it into a METAL bucket of cold tap water before dissolving in dilute nitric. 

I was dissolving the cement silver powder directly in dilute nitric acid and I kept getting a cloudy solution upon addition of distilled water to make my electrolyte.

After melting and pouring into cold tap water to form flakes/shot, rinse the flakes/shot with plenty of distilled water to remove the tap water (tap water contains dissolved chlorides and will react with the silver to form silver chloride and turn your clear silver nitrate solution cloudy).

Here is the thread complete with photos of the whole mishap:

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=8589&p=80542#p80542

kadriver


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## kadriver (Jul 24, 2013)

Also, I have used this procedure to dissolve the silver to make my electrolyte.

If you are using a one liter cell, then you can use 150 grams (or even 200 grams or just 100 grams) of cement silver that has been melted and poured into flakes/shot as described above. The Higher the silver nitrate concentration, the greater the conductivity of the electrolyte, the faster the crystals in your cell will grow.

Place the 150 grams of flake/shot silver in a suitable Pyrex container and add about 150ml distilled water. Make sure and cover the container or it will take much more nitric acid to dissolve the silver. A glass saucer or watch glass will reflux the brown fumes back into the container instead of escaping into the air.

Place the covered container with the flakes/shot and distilled water inside a corningware dish and place that on a heat source over low heat.

Then begin adding concentrated nitric acid in 20 or 30ml increments, waiting for the reaction to slow down between additions. Taper off the additions of nitric towards the end and add more heat.

You can tell when the reaction is complete when the atmosphere inside the covered container is clear (no brown fumes). You want a few small bits of undissolved silver left in the bottom of the container. This will ensure that all the nitric has been consumed.

Filter the solution to remove solids, retrieve the few bits of undissolved silver and save.

Then add enough distilled water to make one liter of electrolyte for your silver cell.

I use this procedure, it takes a little longer, but I believe it is the most efficient way (short of using a water cooled reflux condenser) to get the most work out of your nitric acid.

Hope this is helpful to you.

kadriver


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## kadriver (Jul 24, 2013)

adamc, I just went back and read where you are already doing what I described as you are using anode bars. But the flakes/shot will dissolve faster than bars because the flakes/shot have a greater surface are than the bars.

kadriver


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