# Creating silver powder from silver grain



## Ringer69 (Oct 11, 2015)

Hi

Firstly, just like to say that this is an awesome forum full of knowledge. I have been reading posts for some time and apologise that I have taken until now to write a post.

I would really appreciate some advise here.

I am trying to create fine powdered silver for a project. I live in the UK and cannot purchase Nitric Acid. I have read concerning making "cold nitric" but unsure if I want to go down that route.

I am looking at buying 1kg of silver grain at a time and converting it into a fine powder. The grain is approximately 6mm each part.

What I am considering doing is purchasing a ball mill and milling it to a fine powder.

Does anyone have any experience in milling silver grain to powder or have any advice concerning powdering (that doesn't include nitric acid)?

Thank you very much in advance


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## Barren Realms 007 (Oct 11, 2015)

If you try to grind the silver up in a ball mill you will not end up with a pure silver powder when it is finished. You will have some of the grinding media mixed in with the powder. Your best bet it to dissolve the silver into solution then cement it back out with copper and wash the copper out or drop the silver out as silver chloride and then convert it back to silver method.


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## Ringer69 (Oct 11, 2015)

Barren Realms 007 said:


> If you try to grind the silver up in a ball mill you will not end up with a pure silver powder when it is finished. You will have some of the grinding media mixed in with the powder. Your best bet it to dissolve the silver into solution then cement it back out with copper and wash the copper out or drop the silver out as silver chloride and then convert it back to silver method.




Thank you very much for the response.
Is there any alternative to nitric acid as a solution?


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## solar_plasma (Oct 11, 2015)

Without HNO3 your only choice is to buy silver metal powder. Anything else would be a poor choice considering effort and costs.

An AgSO4 cell with overvoltage to form floating lumps of silver powder might be something I would try, if it were me, but I can't say if it would work well. A CuSO4 cell would work with any AgCu alloy, but the silver will be highly contaminated with copper and would at least need to be washed (boiled) intensely and a long time with dilluted H2SO4. 

Tap water cell would also be worth to consider. You would end up with mainly Ag2O (and a little AgCl in the beginning), that needs to be converted by sugar method. If you start with pure silver, the end product will still be more or less clean. This would work fine, but it is very slow. You could roll the silver to have a larger electrode surface. At about 60cm x 40cm you could get 50-100g per day (experienced).

Poor choices in my eyes, especially if you want to process a whole kg, - but possible.


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## 4metals (Oct 11, 2015)

What mesh size are you looking for? What is your end use?


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## Ringer69 (Oct 11, 2015)

4metals said:


> What mesh size are you looking for? What is your end use?



Ideally I would prefer pure silver powder straight from the nitric acid bath. I'm looking to make my own silver art clay, similar to PMC.

I think I might put a post in the Wanted section for silver powder.

Thanks everyone for the advice.


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## solar_plasma (Oct 14, 2015)

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=2868

At least possible.


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## Palladium (Oct 14, 2015)

I've used this before as an experiment and it worked well. Wash good and heat it up to convert to silver metal. Then mix with HEC. 

http://www.google.com/patents/US20050050990. 

http://www.google.com/patents/US5328775


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## Palladium (Oct 14, 2015)

For a low low price you can own the domain rights also.  

I've developed a couple of formula's and have been seriously thinking about jumping into the market. Theirs definitely market share available and good money to be made. I just don't have the time it takes to devote to marketing. You could cut the competitions price and sell on eBay and eat them alive while still laughing on the way to the bank.
http://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=silvermetalclay.com


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## Ringer69 (Oct 15, 2015)

Palladium said:


> I've used this before as an experiment and it worked well. Wash good and heat it up to convert to silver metal. Then mix with HEC.
> 
> http://www.google.com/patents/US20050050990.
> 
> http://www.google.com/patents/US5328775




Thank you very much, very interesting read.
Still struggling to buy silver powder/crystal though.

Do any of the regulars on here sell their silver crystals? I'm looking to pay spot prices for it. Looking to buy a KG at a time.


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