# tiny chips



## arthur kierski (Mar 8, 2008)

in the boards there are tiny chips that looks like pieces of solder and is known to contain palladium.cellphones boards have many in them.i hould like to know if any one have an idea of how many grams of palladium per pound or kilo----1kilo of these chips fill a 1liter bottle


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## lazersteve (Mar 8, 2008)

Arthur,

They are called monolithic ceramic capacitors.

They vary in the metal in the layers from nickel, silver, gold, palladium, and platinum.

My long awaited Pt and Pd processing DVD (almost finished!!) shows how to process them.

I am hesitant to give you average yield data for a group of mixed monolithic caps, but I've gotten very good palladium returns on batches of identical units.

My tests on PII and PII monolithic caps yielded 0.25 gram Pd per 12.5 grams or ~2% Pd.

Steve


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## arthur kierski (Mar 8, 2008)

Steve,thank you for quick reply-----you are helping me so much that i fell 
that i might help you telling of a method that we do in brazil of extractin g
pd from ar solutions, nitric or ap solutions.y would like to expose to you and if you like it ,you can pass to your forum readers.tell me where to pass the method----looking forward to you dvd.


Arthur kierski


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## jamthe3 (Feb 10, 2009)

I know its an old post, but at least ya'all know I at least tried searching to find an answer first before asking.

How are you processing the capacitors? Crush and dissolve in Nitric and then precipitate w/ sodium chlorate? I also read elsewhere (extracting ?) in hot HCL twice or possibly 3 times to rid of tin & nickel.

Any answers, suggestions, experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
John


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## Anonymous (Feb 10, 2009)

I have question about them also, what are the contact points made of?

Jim


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## jamthe3 (Feb 10, 2009)

Speaking of points, the cylindrical...I guess transistors...that stick up from the boards have long metallic strips w/ points protruding into the from the board. Are these silver?


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## butcher (Feb 11, 2009)

maybe pictures, transistors do not fit that discription,I really have no clue as what electronic parts you are asking about , long strips with points? connectors?if you have a photo we can tell you what the part is called.


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## jamthe3 (Feb 11, 2009)

Thank you Butcher,

The two purplish things on their sides are examples of what I was referring to. They're immediately behind what was attaching them to the board. Two little strips of metal with a fatter top than bottom potruding upward & into each purple component. I thought I'd read somewhere once that these purple cylinders were transistors with an aluminum casing containing some kind of acid; and, I was curious if the contacts were possibly silver. Now I'm curious what they actually are.

Thanks again,
John


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## butcher (Feb 11, 2009)

from photo look like electrolytic capacitors, they are made of tin foils and an electrolyte, they can act as filters or timing devices they store charges, this type of capacitor only has value as reuse in circuits.I cant see transistors at least the larger type looks like most of them may be SMD's (very small lil devices), that is a pretty modern computer type board, check those two square objects to the left of capacitors, they look like processors.or they could just be another added circuit? transistors have three legs and can act as switch's or amplifiers.


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## jamthe3 (Feb 11, 2009)

This was part of a gift of old scrap from a job I did at a military hospital. I posted some pics under...I think it was "phone jacks." Funny, I think it was you that answered a question there for me also about gold plated kovar.

Anyway, you're right this board is copyrighted 2003. The other two were 1995 & 1994. I'm slowly tearing them apart and sorting everything in preparation for a real learning experience and some fun...at least 'till I get stuck in the middle of a process!!

I'm posting another pic. This one has the 2 squares you inquired about centered. Below them is the top & bottom (one upside down) and above them the AL heatsinks that were attached. No clue as to what they were, thus why they're still relatively untouched. Went too fast about a year ago and decided to read (like Harold always says) Hoke's book. Also, downloaded Ammon's and spend countless hours reading previous posts.

So now a year later, I'm getting geared to give it another shot. I think I'm gonna try flatpacks first like I wrote in the phone jack post. That's what got me asking about how to do monolithic capacitors and then the question of whether the purple contacts were possibly silver. Figured if I'm gonna waste Nitric on this learning experience, might as well get all my "acid's" worth...lol.

Thanks for all your patience in answering my ignorant questions, this doesn't come easy for my dim brain for some reason. But, I'm still having a blast anyway.

Cheers,
John


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## butcher (Feb 11, 2009)

I see the transistors at top mid picture three legs. the white squares at bottom look like opto couplers, if they are they have six legs and they have light emitting diodes inside that transmit light to a light detector inside, they are used to isolate the input from the output, hobbiest electronic buffs like these types of components to build circuits with, a heat gun just hot enough to melt solder and not so hot to destroy parts is a good way to get parts off for resale.


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## jamthe3 (Feb 11, 2009)

Thx again Butcher,

Any thoughts on the other questions above about how to process the monolithic capacitors and what the contacts consist of?

Cheers,
John


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## butcher (Feb 12, 2009)

I have not done any monolithics, so my advice may lack info, steve has a videio on PGM's, and has expierience with this check his posts and website. they have solder which should be eliminated,HCl should work, then leach > 150 degrees, either aqua regia, or HCl bleach, (if aqua regia will need to evaporate nitric),dilute settle,decant,filter concentrate, using ammonium chloride and sodium chlorate to precipitate from hot concentrated solution, as I said I have not done it but this should get you enough info to find the process you need. I have no idea of what contacts you are asking about, in electronics they use nickel, gold, sometimes Pd, old stuff silver, on contacts,


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## jamthe3 (Feb 12, 2009)

Thx Butcher,

I got Steve's video & it is fan-spankin-tastic !! It deals w/ cats; wondered if the capacitors were done differently, perhaps w/ nitric acid.

The contacts actually were asked by James right after my question and I believe he was curious as to what the contacts for the monolithic capacitors consisted of. Then my curiousity got me and I asked about the ones that stick up into the cylinders full of electrolyte you identified for me.

I yanked a couple off and am dropping them into a couple mls of acid to test. Got about a half kilo of flatpacks I'm getting ready to crush a give a whirl at seeing if I can get any silver & such out as practice this weekend. Funny, you brought up the Hcl for tin...I was just reading up on how to deal w/ tin in preparation for just this. A lot of the flatpacks have pieces of the "legs" still attached and it was bothering me.

On a side note, I cracked open two itty bitty ones and found a small square of plated material inside. Don't know if its copper or gold or whatever, but I have it fizzing off now to try & determine what it might be. I've been asking too many questions and figured maybe this might answer some without bothering ya'all all the time on relatively inconsequential things.

Never been around such a friendly and free giving bunch like this before. Wish the whole world was as neighborly.

Thanks for all the patience,
John


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## butcher (Feb 12, 2009)

I would suspect copper gold Pd nickel in small integrated circuits( they call flatpacks),the plastic is hard so crushing is also hard. steves video should get your Palladium from monolithic capacitors, and if this was not a great site, with great and smart people, I would not have stuck around, making people read my un-readable writings and rantings on, & John it takes a good neighbor to know one.


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## jamthe3 (Feb 12, 2009)

Thanks


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