# Unknown metal disolved



## Marcel (Nov 17, 2012)

I was refining Palladiumpowder from MLCCs, which was mixed with what I believed was Cu(I)Cl. I tried to dissolve the powder with Hot HCl+H2O2 and got Palladium as remains in my filter and a red solution that dripped trough it.
I tested the solution with SC and the cotton swap shows an ornage color after dipping it into it, after SC addition the color fades, so negative. I would describe the color of the solution as burgundy red. I suppose it is not a PM at all. Still I could not find any chloride with the described color. I suspected tin or nickel, but that wont fit. Any idea on what this red solution could be?

Edit: After checking the content of my filter I found very few solids, grey and white mixed so I suppose this is my Cu(I)Cl with just a bit of Pd powder mixed. I now think the solution is the PdCl, but I get a false negative result. Could that be because of too much H2O2? Any input?


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## kurt (Nov 20, 2012)

Have you tried a DMG test on your solution?

Kurt


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## Marcel (Nov 20, 2012)

kurt said:


> Have you tried a DMG test on your solution?
> 
> Kurt



I dont have DMG, but will try to get some soon.
meanwhile I was able to save a part of the Pd, roughly 1g the rest was losses.
I noticed that this was colliadial Pd, very hard to drop and contaminated with Cu(I)Cl, very fine powder.
I dried the solution until I got a dark sludge, then cooked it in hot AP for several hours, used mortar and pestle a sieve and much some more and finally got a small button.
The Cu(I)Cl was so nasty I finally gave up.


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## Lino1406 (Nov 22, 2012)

An example of "red" chloride:
cobalt chloride, iron(III) chloride


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## kurt (Nov 24, 2012)

Marcel

Sorry for the delay in responding - been "very" bussy - when you have a colliadial problem cementing works as a "recovery" process (in this case I would use zinc) The colliadials co-deposit with what ever else comes down in the cementing incuding base metals 

Depending on what else all comes down with zinc cementing will depend on how you re-process to get your Pd - but at least you recover your Pd for further processing rather then loosing the value --- its the same principle as recovering values from the stock pot & then working what you recover down to a point where you can start seperating the values from the garbage.

DMG is a must have when trying to recover a "small" amount of Pd from solutions that contain "large" amounts of other metals (wether the "large" amount of dissolved metals are PMs or base metals)

Kurt


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## Marcel (Nov 24, 2012)

@Kurt
thanks for hinting me at the DMG, I will try to get some and continue then. WIll report on how it worked for me a once I tried it out.


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