# sodium THIOsulfate



## Anonymous (Mar 3, 2010)

This is my first post. Thanks to everyone to all the good info.. I've taken the advice and have been reading and printing my azz off. building stock and working thru trial and error.. 

simple question. 
I've been here and there looking for all the thing i need, chemicals and products. I couldn't find smb(beer bottle cleaner of food pres.) for precip. so i went to the next best..pool chem, sodium thiosulfate. 

the question is the THIO. 
is this the same as sodium sulfate?


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## butcher (Mar 3, 2010)

SMB is sulfite not sulfate, these two chemicals are different, and have different uses.
a sulfite is what you need for gold precipitation this is what creates SO2 gas in solution.

There is a stump remover that is bonide stump out sodium metabisulfite (sodium pyrosulfite) same thing, 

and one stump remover brand which is a pottasium nitrate.

Ferrous sulfate will also precipitate gold, and can be made from dilute sulfuric acid and pure Iron (transformer core, low carbon soft Iron).


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## Anonymous (Mar 3, 2010)

well thank you thank you bunches and bunches. my online search led me to the thio product and it's now working. back to home depot for me!! ( i can get it there?) thanks much

p.s. same precip. proccess and volume of chem/h2o w/ stump remover?


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## butcher (Mar 3, 2010)

the bonide brand stump remover is SMB, ACE hardware out here in the sticks carried it in garden section, they also had a ferrous sulfate moss remover, but I make mine,


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## Anonymous (Mar 3, 2010)

appreciate the info butcher. i've trashed 2 batches on this precip. i get light brown (small) clumps and a greyish black gunky looking layer. good thing i'm saving the good scrap till i get a good bead on the proccess.


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## Platdigger (Mar 3, 2010)

Just curious, how much was the thio you found?

oh, and welcome to the forum.


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## Anonymous (Mar 8, 2010)

I bought 20 oz. from a pool supply store for $25.00. if you know the proccess to precipitate with this product please share.. and thank you


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## LittleJohnnyH2SO4 (Mar 9, 2010)

b_illyon said:



> I bought 20 oz. from a pool supply store for $25.00. if you know the proccess to precipitate with this product please share.. and thank you



As with anything from pool supply, that is incredibly expensive. The problem with thiosulfate is that in acidic solution, it breaks down into sulfur dioxide and elemental sulfur. The SO2 would reduce your gold, but you will end up with large amounts of sulfur contaminating it.

Just ordering a large amount of SMB online will be cheaper than anything you can find locally. Here's a random google result (I have no experience with the company): http://www.homebrewit.com/aisle/p/6010D

You'll probably find some here who still think that's too expensive.


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## butcher (Mar 10, 2010)

Hmm :idea: SO2 gas generator, sulfur byproduct if distilled?
maybe worth looking into?
in acid thiosulfate:
S2O3 + H --> SO2 gas S (s) + H2O

from what I see from equation below thiosulfate act differently with halogens this may create a mess if trying to use to reduce gold from your solutions
S2O32− (aq) + 4 Cl2 (aq) + 5 H2O (l) → 2 SO42− (aq) + 8 Cl− (aq) + 10 H+ (aq) 
and if chlorine generated your gold would probably stay in soution?


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## LittleJohnnyH2SO4 (Mar 12, 2010)

butcher said:


> Hmm :idea: SO2 gas generator, sulfur byproduct if distilled?
> maybe worth looking into?
> in acid thiosulfate:
> S2O3 + H --> SO2 gas S (s) + H2O
> ...



Exhaustive chlorination of the solution would turn everything to sulfate, but why use chlorine if you just reduced it? If we're talking about residual chlorine, you'll probably still get elemental sulfur bobbing in solution, but the SO2 portion would end up as sulfate (just like SMB).

It's very much not worth it to use thiosulfate instead of SMB. it comes as a hydrate, so you pay for water weight and is typically a good deal costier than SMB. Powdered elemental sulfur is really cheap too. I don't quite get why you'd want to make your own.


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## Platdigger (Mar 12, 2010)

Just curious Johnny, you say "Exhaustive chlorination of the solution would turn everything to sulfate"

Wouldn't this tend to make chlorides instead?

Also, I have some sodium thiosulfate. It came dry, in crystal form.


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## butcher (Mar 13, 2010)

Johnny, I do not think thiosulfate would work as a precipitant if used directly.

but seems to me that it can be used to generate SO2 Gas (which will work to precipitate gold if bubbled into solution), can you clear up this for me, I may not be understanding what you stated. are you saying it would not be good to make SO2 gas if used to generate the gas, this seems it would be more simple than burning sulfur.
and I have thought of trying to make an SO2 gas generator.


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## lazersteve (Mar 13, 2010)

Butcher,

Check out the Sulfurous acid document on my website. It's a great read and you'll learn a lot, I know I did.

Did I mention it diagrams a SO2 generator. The generator is a simple set up and uses HCl and SMB as the feedstock if my memory serves me correctly.

Steve


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## shaftsinkerawc (Mar 19, 2010)

Hello Steve, I looked for the Sulfurous Acid document on your website and didn't see it What is it listed under? Thanks and Have a great day.


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## lazersteve (Mar 20, 2010)

Check again it's there now.

Steve


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## shaftsinkerawc (Mar 20, 2010)

Thanks Steve! Was there a topic where you used peroxide with a little sulfuric on CPU's? I can't seem to locate.


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## Barren Realms 007 (Mar 20, 2010)

shaftsinkerawc said:


> Thanks Steve! Was there a topic where you used peroxide with a little sulfuric on CPU's? I can't seem to locate.



This is a PM he sent me concerning this.

With Pentium Pros I always torch off the bottom cover. I've a very detailed post about processing two of these. The top plate is a copper tungsten alloy which is very resistant to most acids, but sulfuric and peroxide will loosen up the gold plating, then you can use any of the normal methods to dissolve the legs, foils, and remaining cpu housing gold. The solder has some silver in it.


Be careful mixing sulfuric and peroxide, especially when applying heat, the mixture can corrode glass beakers and bubbles violently.

The cpus will strip in the cell if you can get a good electrical connection.

Be sure to read my post on the pentium pros before using the peroxide sulfuric mix.


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## shaftsinkerawc (Mar 20, 2010)

I don't know for sure but the cpu's I am running sound the same as below. I soaked them for 3 days in room temp battery acid sulfuric with additions of peroxide and then popped the covers off without much effort with a pair of pliers and channel locks. after 24 hours or so I started noticing golden pins on the bottom of my dish. After removing the covers and letting soak more for the plating under the cover I noticed that the pins/covers turned copper looking and my solution turned blueish with a cloudy whitish bottom half. Is this perhaps the silver? I didn't get a fast bubble reaction to the addition of the peroxide likely due to the lack of heat and maybe I wasn't using enough. I washed several times and then placed each of them in a seperate container and have them soaking in Muriatic Acid. Overnight the muriatic w/covers took on a yellow hue. The fibers had a slight yellow hue till stirred and the pins and stuff that came off the fibers solution had a slight greenish tint till stirred. All solutions tested negative with Stannous but all get saved in Stock pot anyway to evaporate off excess water. Seperate for Muriatic and Sulfuric. Put some ceramic cpu's in the cloudy sulfuric. Will be gone for several days so letting everything sit.


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