# silver recovery from xray film using caustic soda



## chandler_P

Hi everyone!

need help on the step by step guide on recovery of silver from xray films using caustic soda. 
Help anyone? (manuel , GSP?) need big time advice

Thank you.


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## bhupesh17

hi,i m bhupesh mulik frm mumbai,india
can u tell me exactly what u do with xray film and naoh.


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## chandler_P

Hi there blu,

I am also asking for somebody's help, waiting for response from the very knowledgeable guys (manuel and GSP ). Well, I soaked the films in caustic soda solution and waited until it stripped off from the film. Im not quite sure what's with the film (if it is silver iodide, AgBr, AgCl). My next question is how to separate silver ffrom the solution. Will I burn them (what happens here, i would love to know the chemical process involve here). got some ideas?

cheers!


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## goldsilverpro

I've been busy and will answer your questions when I get around to it. Don't push me or you'll never get any answers, at least not from me. As the old saying goes, don't look a *gift* horse in the mouth. Have any of you searched the forum for the answers you want? I know it's been discussed several times. 

Chris


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## bhupesh17

hi
u are treating xray film with naoh,so yr compound will be agcl,agbr,or any other,if u seen white cloudy precipitate,then it will be agcl.u displace cl using iron,u will get cement silver.


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## Palladium

bhupesh17 said:


> hi
> u are treating xray film with naoh,so yr compound will be agcl,agbr,or any other,if u seen white cloudy precipitate,then it will be agcl.u displace cl using iron,u will get cement silver.


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## Platdigger

HAHAHA...now that is funny!


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## chandler_P

Hi GSP,

yes. I've been reading the forum regarding this.
Well, with what i gathered, one shoud soaked the used xray film and heat it until it dries up. then filter it and smelt.

I was thinking of other ways to make the silver settle faster while it is still in the caustic soda solution. 

Thanks in advance!


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## chandler_P

bhupesh17 said:


> hi
> u are treating xray film with naoh,so yr compound will be agcl,agbr,or any other,if u seen white cloudy precipitate,then it will be agcl.u displace cl using iron,u will get cement silver.



I'm using developed x-ray film; with what i learned from this site, when it is developed, there are no silver halides anymore but rather silver. I've been seeking advice.


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## goldsilverpro

bhupesh17 said:


> hi,i m bhupesh mulik frm mumbai,india
> can u tell me exactly what u do with xray film and naoh.


bhupesh,

Your name sounded familiar and I finally figured out why. It was on the finishing.com forum. I assume you are that same person. If so, you have made many posts there and I have read most of them. I have made quite a few posts there, myself. You seem to be quite knowledgeable. I appreciate your participation and am glad you are here.

Welcome to our forum,

Chris Owen


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## chandler_P

Thanks Chris.

will be waiting for that.

More power to you and to this site!


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## chandler_P

For the newbies like me:

Here's the process i followed; it's a little longer than usual -

Make Caustic soda solution 
Add your film, you could wait for some hours to completely wash off the silver and gelatin
allow the mud/sludge to settle and scoop out the excess NaOH solution
Heat it up and let it settle
Filter and melt

Cheers!


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## chandler_P

Hi y'all, 

got my first production, got little amount of silver. 

now, i wanted to refine my method. 

Has anybody experienced using caustic soda and sugar, i read it is done for silver chloride. I tried a little amount from my solution and it seems to work. don't know the chemistry behind it though.

Good day!


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## chandler_P

Finally!


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## jonathancasas

I am a newbie here. I am not a chemical engineer either. May i know how to make caustic soda or we can buy it? i would like to make my first production from X-ray film. Hope your could share some of the details how did you get it successfully chandler?


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## butcher

bhupesh17, I too recognize the name, are you the guy from India? I hope we still have you here on the forum, as you seem to know what you talk about.

I have not seen you post again here, hope we didnt run you off.

bhupesh17,
"hi
u are treating xray film with naoh,so yr compound will be agcl,agbr,or any other,if u seen white cloudy precipitate,then it will be agcl.u displace cl using iron,u will get cement silver."


I think some here were wondering where the halide came from, were you talking about another process involving a halide?


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## joem

I have been following this thread with interest becuase my job still uses ltho film - but please post in regular emglish and not using texting speech.
What is the recipe for lye solution and do you just let the plastic film sit in the solution until the black drops off?


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## Harold_V

butcher said:


> I think some here were wondering where the halide came from, were you talking about another process involving a halide?


He (bhupesh17) was banned from the forum for disregarding my admonition to stop using text lingo. It is not acceptable here.

Harold


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## joem

> He (bhupesh17) was banned from the forum for disregarding my admonition to stop using text lingo. It is not acceptable here.
> 
> Harold



Too bad he had some info I would have liked, but I guess his attitude was too much for his knowledge, oh well


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## safesilverrecovery

Why don't you just use a refiner rather then all the complication. Isn't the effort offset but what they will make on it?

Andy


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## philddreamer

Andy, recovering & refining precious metals is only complicated & unsafe for those who don't take the time to read & educate themselves. This forum has ALL the information needed & the experts that freely share their advice & expertice. 

For those that don't want to spend the time reading & educating themselves, yes, it would be better for them to find a refiner.

Phil


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## joem

safesilverrecovery said:


> Why don't you just use a refiner rather then all the complication. Isn't the effort offset but what they will make on it?
> 
> Andy



We don't produce enough waste film to be of interest to a refiner, only about 1 garbage can full a year


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank

safesilverrecovery said:


> Why don't you just use a refiner rather then all the complication. Isn't the effort offset but what they will make on it?
> 
> Andy


We have fun refining our own materials so why to pay anybody for having fun?,besides,we do not trust on refiners...they have two very bad habits:

1.-They pay a pittance for our material.

2.-They steal our metal.

Manuel


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## mda20

chandler_P said:


> For the newbies like me:
> 
> Here's the process i followed; it's a little longer than usual -
> 
> Make Caustic soda solution
> Add your film, you could wait for some hours to completely wash off the silver and gelatin
> allow the mud/sludge to settle and scoop out the excess NaOH solution
> Heat it up and let it settle
> Filter and melt
> 
> Cheers!


I will add some details:
- Dissolve about 500 gms of caustic soda in 10L of hot wter.
- Stir the liquid by wooden stick.
- submerged 5 kgs of films in the solution.
- After 15 hours rub the coated sides by hands ( after you put on gloves).
- Settle and dry the mud.

The problem with caustic soda process is in the melting. It is easy to remove silver halide and gelatine, but it is so hard to melt the sludge.

Good Luck


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## sena

mda20 said:


> chandler_P said:
> 
> 
> 
> For the newbies like me:
> 
> Here's the process i followed; it's a little longer than usual -
> 
> Make Caustic soda solution
> Add your film, you could wait for some hours to completely wash off the silver and gelatin
> allow the mud/sludge to settle and scoop out the excess NaOH solution
> Heat it up and let it settle
> Filter and melt
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> 
> 
> I will add some details:
> - Dissolve about 500 mgs of caustic soda in 10L of hot wter.
> - Stir the liquid by wooden stick.
> - submerged 5 kgs of films in the solution.
> - After 15 hours rub the coated sides by hands ( after you put on gloves).
> - Settle and dry the mud.
> 
> The problem with caustic soda process is in the melting. It is easy to remove silver halide and gelatine, but it is so hard to melt the sludge.
> 
> Good Luck
Click to expand...






please do incinerate the sludge before melting it reduces the melting time!!!!


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## chandler_P

joem said:


> safesilverrecovery said:
> 
> 
> 
> Why don't you just use a refiner rather then all the complication. Isn't the effort offset but what they will make on it?
> 
> Andy
> 
> 
> 
> 
> We don't produce enough waste film to be of interest to a refiner, only about 1 garbage can full a year
Click to expand...

 hi there!

been quite busy trying to collect some films. I suggest you collect large amount to save time and effort. 


cheers!


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## chandler_P

Juan Manuel Arcos Frank said:


> safesilverrecovery said:
> 
> 
> 
> Why don't you just use a refiner rather then all the complication. Isn't the effort offset but what they will make on it?
> 
> Andy
> 
> 
> 
> We have fun refining our own materials so why to pay anybody for having fun?,besides,we do not trust on refiners...they have two very bad habits:
> 
> 1.-They pay a pittance for our material.
> 
> 2.-They steal our metal.
> 
> Manuel
Click to expand...


Haha! yes sir! why would you send it to refiner if you could do this and learning a lot! regards, my good friend Manuel!


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## kuma

mda20 said:


> chandler_P said:
> 
> 
> 
> For the newbies like me:
> 
> Here's the process i followed; it's a little longer than usual -
> 
> Make Caustic soda solution
> Add your film, you could wait for some hours to completely wash off the silver and gelatin
> allow the mud/sludge to settle and scoop out the excess NaOH solution
> Heat it up and let it settle
> Filter and melt
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> 
> 
> I will add some details:
> - Dissolve about 500 mgs of caustic soda in 10L of hot wter.
> - Stir the liquid by wooden stick.
> - submerged 5 kgs of films in the solution.
> - After 15 hours rub the coated sides by hands ( after you put on gloves ).
> - Settle and dry the mud.
> 
> The problem with caustic soda process is in the melting. It is easy to remove silver halide and gelatine, but it is so hard to melt the sludge.
> 
> Good Luck
Click to expand...


Remember your eye protection here guy's , I don't believe that there are any second chances with Lye! :evil: :idea: 
All the best and kind regards ,
Chris

Link to Lye / Caustic MSDS http://cheville.okstate.edu/photonicslab/Safety/safety/MSDS/naoh_msds.htm

(Edited to paste link)


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## joem

We don't produce enough to warrant the shipping costs, so my need for info is a personla recovery one.


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## abhay

hi......everyone
im new here...
can anyone tell me the full procedure for the recovery of silver from caustic soda?


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## goldsilverpro

abhay,

Strip, filter, incinerate, melt. The details can be found by searching the forum.


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## g_axelsson

mda20 said:


> I will add some details:
> - Dissolve about 500 mgs of caustic soda in 10L of hot wter.
> - Stir the liquid by wooden stick.
> - submerged 5 kgs of films in the solution.
> - After 15 hours rub the coated sides by hands ( after you put on gloves).
> - Settle and dry the mud.
> 
> The problem with caustic soda process is in the melting. It is easy to remove silver halide and gelatine, but it is so hard to melt the sludge.
> 
> Good Luck



"500mgs" milligrams? grams? What do you mean? This is not clear.
Milligrams is written mg ( m=milli = 10-3 )and for grams use g. That is the MKS standard.

/Göran


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## goldsilverpro

From 4% to 10%, by weight = 40g/l to 100g/l. It a time, temperature, strength thing. The weaker and/or cooler it is, the longer it takes.

The reason mda20 had trouble melting the sludge is because he didn't incinerate it to white ash first.


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## butcher

abhay,

You have that one questioned answered, but you will now have thousands of others, the only way to learn this, is for you to do the research and study the forum, asking one question at a time you will just get lost in the dark and never get anywhere.

When you study and get stumped by not being able to find the answer to your question that is where asking the question will help you understand what you are studying.

The use of text language to try to get an answer will not get you help on the forum.
Read back a few posts it can get you banned from learning on this forum.
Use your best writing skills, and use the spell check on your computer.


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## rusty

Hey this should work for keyboard mylers - right.


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## goldsilverpro

This link gives good photos of some of the types of film scrap.
http://www.ecs-cares.com/film2.html


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