# before i try to melt it i thought i would ask. Au,ag,pt,pd



## Aog (Oct 11, 2012)

Hi all. Iv been given a 55.9 gram job to be worked on. Its a small job that someones tryed to melt them selves. 

My friends niton xrf zapps the composition as follows
Ni.3.1
Cu 3.47
Zn .8
Pd 16.2
Ag 9.25
Pt 13.66
Au 52.8

My question is will the platinum bearing alloy melt in my electic furnace which only goes to 1100 deg c. 
Im hoping to pour into water for flakes to be processed. 

Iv read on here that diffrent ratios of metal have diffrent melting points. Any help would be brill. 

Many thanks. Dave. P


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## MysticColby (Oct 11, 2012)

24K gold melts at 1064C (52.8%)
platinum melts at 1768C (13.66%)
palladium melts at  1555C (16.2%)

mixtures do tend to have lower melting points than the pure (like sterling silver). Enough Pd/Pt would increase the melting point, and together that might be enough... The other minority metals should decrease the melting point.
I think that in the end, I would expect this mixture to melt slightly above the melting point of gold.

salt taken with my advice: I haven't actually melted gold or PGM before, nor any interesting mixtures.

even if it were pure gold, 1100C is too close to effectively melt gold. sure, it melts, but it freezes again as soon as you take it out of the heat to pour it.
There might be some pages searchable on google that have concentration gold vs. concentration platinum or palladium and their melting point curve.


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## MysticColby (Oct 11, 2012)

take a look at https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:V2mr1pH-rSMJ:www.platinummetalsreview.com/pdf/pmr-v6-i2-060-067.pdf+melting+point+gold+platinum+curve&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESjOdCUS95rOdfFWW0a_3QCPZNkRxMkrFPclwGMnDyLxOPefdwIQw084wNDmryCGS4moBmSkEJkdmOP7n30bVHxWXPBwSCMI5RQI4T0PoK_fhhycf-3ymmpzyDpTeUqj6pZGh0Q1&sig=AHIEtbQ_kFrzzzhwIJKP5SqShWBybw-SzQ

it looks like any platinum added to gold will increase it's melting point. 20% platinum, 80% gold looks like it has a melting point at about 1200C
I doubt there is a comprehensive study on palladium/gold melting point, but I would expect them to be similar.


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## nickvc (Oct 11, 2012)

You can always add more copper to the mix to reduce the melting point.


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## Aog (Oct 12, 2012)

Cheers for feed back. Thanks nick. Ill give the copper idea blast. Or as a last resort try to just eat the lot in AR after a nitric bath. Thanks again.


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