# What to do of copper nitrate



## hrushi

I have nearly 1800 to 1900 liters of copper nitrate and the copper content per liter is 150 to 175 gms.
What should i do .

I tried recovery copper by depositing it on iron but the results were not satisfactory and also while melting that copper powder it was found that it had iron also.

thank you 
hrushi


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## Oz

While I am the wrong one to ask as to details I would think you would want to use an electrowinning cell using a pure copper sheet as cathode and graphite anode. 

If it is free from other contaminates just evaporate it down to copper nitrate crystals and sell it as such.


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## nicknitro

Oz, 

Sorry for butting in on your topic hrushi.

Quick question, OZ, where would you sell your copper nitrate crystals. I don't believe I have ever seen that as a solution to waste handleing.

Even if you could give it away in solid form, it sounds better than what I have heard of for options.


Thanks, 
Nick


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## lazersteve

Copper nitrate solutions can be dehydrated and converted to nitric acid via decomposition and passing the brown gas into cold distilled water or hydrogen peroxide:

2 Cu (NO3)2 → 2 CuO + 4 NO2 + O2
3NO2 + H2O → 2HNO3 + NO

The left over copper oxide can then be converted to copper metal in the presence of hydrogen or carbon monoxide:

CuO + H2 → Cu + H2O
CuO + CO → Cu + CO2 

Or you can convert it to copper chloride to use in the AP reaction:

CuO + 2 HCl → CuCl2 + H2O

Copper nitrate solution (6 molar or less) can also be converted to nitric acid via electrolysis. The anode and cathode are inert materials (graphite) and the copper metal is removed form the cell as it accumulates at the negative terminal. The nitric produced will not be 100% free of base metals, but will be usable in further dissolving reactions to remove more base metal.

You can also cement out the copper with aluminum or iron if the copper nitrate solution is not too saturated.

Steve


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## Platdigger

hrushi, do you know the purity of this nitrate solution?


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## hrushi

Thank you all for your kind and enthusiastic.
:lol:


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## hrushi

Oz said:


> While I am the wrong one to ask as to details I would think you would want to use an electrowinning cell using a pure copper sheet as cathode and graphite anode.
> 
> If it is free from other contaminates just evaporate it down to copper nitrate crystals and sell it as such.



I go tall this CuNO3 as a byproduct of silver refining
And as of electrowinning cell i do not know more is it economical :?: 
I am doubtful that it is free from other contaminates.
thank you Oz


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## hrushi

lazersteve said:


> Copper nitrate solutions can be dehydrated and converted to nitric acid via decomposition and passing the brown gas into cold distilled water or hydrogen peroxide:
> 
> 2 Cu (NO3)2 → 2 CuO + 4 NO2 + O2
> 3NO2 + H2O → 2HNO3 + NO
> 
> The left over copper oxide can then be converted to copper metal in the presence of hydrogen or carbon monoxide:
> 
> CuO + H2 → Cu + H2O
> CuO + CO → Cu + CO2
> 
> Or you can convert it to copper chloride to use in the AP reaction:
> 
> CuO + 2 HCl → CuCl2 + H2O
> 
> Copper nitrate solution (6 molar or less) can also be converted to nitric acid via electrolysis. The anode and cathode are inert materials (graphite) and the copper metal is removed form the cell as it accumulates at the negative terminal. The nitric produced will not be 100% free of base metals, but will be usable in further dissolving reactions to remove more base metal.
> 
> You can also cement out the copper with aluminum or iron if the copper nitrate solution is not too saturated.
> 
> Steve




how to dehydrated Copper nitrate solution and converted to nitric acid 
I have tried cement Cu on Fe but results were not satisfactory
And can you help to cement Cu on aluminum and can aluminum recovered again :?: 
Steve i am interested in buying your DVD's and I am from india are the shipping charges involved in it if not please tell through PM 
Thank you 
Hrushi


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## hrushi

Platdigger said:


> hrushi, do you know the purity of this nitrate solution?



Platdigger
No i dont know the purity of it and i am not sure of other contaminants in it 
Thank You 
Hrushi


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## lazersteve

I'm working on a short video of converting dirty copper nitrate solutions into dilute nitric acid for reuse. It will be posted on my website when it is completed.

I'll add India to the shipping calculator on my website today.

Steve


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## hrushi

Hi guys
thank you all for your help 
i had few questions
which method is best for copper recovery (Fe/Al/electrowinning cell)?
Which will give me the max recovery of copper?
If I go for electrowinning cell will it give 100% recovery of copper present in CuNO3 or there will be some pregnent sol of copper will be there? I have read somewhere that in electrowinning cell we dont get 100% recovery of any metal atleast i know about silver. 
thank you 
hrushi


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank

hrushi:
You can recover the copper adding table salt to the copper nitrate to form copper chloride,then dip some slabs of aluminium or iron and you will get a brown precipitate of copper which needs more refining,so you can use an electrolytical cell to get pure copper.
Regards.
Manuel


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## hrushi

Juan Manuel Arcos Frank said:


> hrushi:
> You can recover the copper adding table salt to the copper nitrate to form copper chloride,then dip some slabs of aluminium or iron and you will get a brown precipitate of copper which needs more refining,so you can use an electrolytical cell to get pure copper.
> Regards.
> Manuel


Manuel 
It seems to me like cementing Cu by Al or Fe but only difference is instead of adding HCl i have to add NaCl if i am not wrong.
Can you explain what purity of Cu will i get
Can you give me more help regarding electrilytic cell for Cu
Regards
Hrushi


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## Platdigger

Manuel, what is the purpose of converting copper nitrate to copper chloride, before cementing to iron?
Randy


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank

Hrushi:

The copper recovered by cementation is 99% pure,but it is unuseful for any purpose because copper needs to be very very pure (0.9995).This is why you need to refine the crude copper in an electrolytic cell.I post for you an article about the elctrolytic refining process and another one about copper scrap.

I hope it helps.

Have a nice day

Manuel


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank

Damn!!!!!!.....I forgot the article about copper scrap..here it is.Sorry.
Manuel


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank

Randy:

Reaction between copper nitrate and iron is a reversible one in acidic pH,then you have got to add some water to avoid this fact,it means a lot of volume because you have to add 5 lt of wter for 1 lt of copper nitrate solution.BTW,from the inquartation process you recover the silver and copper adding table salt forming a chlorides mixure (silver and copper),the silver chloride goes down,the copper chloride still in solution just waiting to dip an iron or aluminium slab to recover it.

Randy,it a pleasure talking with you.

Regards.

Manuel


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## hrushi

Manuel

Thanks For Your help.
Sorry for delay in reply.  
Information which you provided was very useful and it helped me alot.
I recovered 228 Kgs of Cu by cementation on Al. It was better and fast compared to Fe. :lol: 
Once again thank you 

hrushi


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank

hrushi:

You are welcome!!!!...By the way,which part of India do you live?.

God bless you.

Best regards.

Manuel


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## shadybear

hrushi said:


> Manuel
> 
> Thanks For Your help.
> Sorry for delay in reply.
> Information which you provided was very useful and it helped me alot.
> I recovered 228 Kgs of Cu by cementation on Al. It was better and fast compared to Fe. :lol:
> Once again thank you
> 
> hrushi



were you able to re-use the nitric after this procedure


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## hrushi

shadybear said:


> hrushi said:
> 
> 
> 
> Manuel
> 
> Thanks For Your help.
> Sorry for delay in reply.
> Information which you provided was very useful and it helped me alot.
> I recovered 228 Kgs of Cu by cementation on Al. It was better and fast compared to Fe. :lol:
> Once again thank you
> 
> hrushi
> 
> 
> 
> 
> were you able to re-use the nitric after this procedure
Click to expand...


No as i used to add urea I didnt get HNO3 back.


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## butcher

distilling copper nitrate, (adding copper or gold plated copper can assist creating NOx fumes in boil, which also is a way I get gold plating from Pins. killing two birds one stone) would get nitric back from copper chloride solutions, bubble NOx gas into water, for dilute nitric, which can then evaporate water from dilute nitric untill 68%HNO3 azeotrope, this would also concentrate the copper solution left behind'
nitric acid form an azeotrope with water, (many acids form azeotropes), so if just evaporating a dilute nitric solution, below the boiling point of the acid (for the concentration that the acid is at the time in solution), would boil off water (or other volitile components if in solution), making the acid more concentrated in solution, up to the azeotrope of the acid, which for nitric is about 68%, further boiling would only boil off the 68% solution till dry, meaning it cannot be further concentrated by this method,by using the boiling point information a person can have a good idea if they are boiling off acid or just water, the concentration can be tested with specific gravity, or judged by how it attacks metals.

CuNO3/H2O---distilled---> NO2 + NOx + H2O,

2NO2 + H2O---> HNO3 + HNO2
3NO2 + H2O---> 2HNO3 + NO

0% HNO3 (100% H2O) boils 100 degC density 1.00, 
and 20% HNO3 density 1.115- boiling point 103 degC,
and 30% HNO3 density1.180 boiling point 107 degC, 
and 50% HNO3 density 1.310 boiling point 116 degC, 
and 70% HNO3 density 1.413 boiling point 121.5 degC. 

as you can see the boiling points change with how concentrated the acid is. keeping below the boiling point most all of your acid stays in solution, and just water vapors off, above the boiling point acid leaves solution in vapor's with the water.

other acids and have reaction similar to this. for more information you can study the azeotrope of acid, boiling points, acid concentrating.


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## jsargent

Found a tidy little way of dealing with copper nitrate... I've been using scrap iron to push out the copper to form ferrous nitrate. Lots of ferrous nitrate to deal with and the copper is a loss, so... just for the heck of it took a gallon of the copper nitrate and slowly titrated in enough sodium borohydride (Boromet brand is NaBH4 stabilized with NaOH) to raise the pH to about 6. 

The copper dropped faster than a drunk hooker off a balconey. It was wonderous. A very clean sharp drop yielding a clear soln. A few rinses with distilled water and that copper should be ready to drop more silver and if I'm not mistaken, the solution should be chock full of sodium nitrate which my fruit trees should love. It only took a small amount of NaBH4 to do the copper drop, so it appears this is economical, despite NaBH4 costing over $250 per 5 gallons. At the very least i should be able to save some $$$ on copper. Gotta be careful tho... the rxn is vigorous and you don't want to get any of this stuff in yer eyes.


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## shadybear

That sounds great but I wonder if there is a cheaper more readily available chemical to do this, or is this just simply a PH change to cause drop


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## goldsilverpro

One pound of Sodium Borohydride will drop:

Copper - 7 pounds
Gold - 14 pounds
Silver - 22 pounds
Palladium - 11 pounds
Platinum - 10 pounds


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## jsargent

shadybear said:


> That sounds great but I wonder if there is a cheaper more readily available chemical to do this, or is this just simply a PH change to cause drop


 It's not due to pH change as hydroxides are not produced in any great quantity. It's due I suppose to the generation of hydrogen gas primarily. Not sure why it works so well but it does.


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## jsargent

goldsilverpro said:



> One pound of Sodium Borohydride will drop:
> 
> Copper - 7 pounds
> Gold - 14 pounds
> Silver - 22 pounds
> Palladium - 11 pounds
> Platinum - 10 pounds


 Seems economical even for copper 8)


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## Anonymous

goldsilverpro said:


> One pound of Sodium Borohydride will drop:
> 
> Copper - 7 pounds
> Gold - 14 pounds
> Silver - 22 pounds
> Palladium - 11 pounds
> Platinum - 10 pounds




Metals in elemental form? not some compound?
Could some company call this storm precipatant?
Will this work with copper chloride?

jim


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## hrushi

It seems economical but I think it is very dangerous to use.
If sol is of both AgNO3+CuNO3 then will it work to drop only Ag?
Here is msds of NaBH4


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## butcher

http://www.google.com/search?q=sodiumborohydride+reducing+gold%2C+copper++metals&btnG=Search&hl=en&sa=2

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=sodiumborohydride+reducing+PGM%27s&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:RkzuiEJy5ecJ:www.siliconinvestigations.com/PTREC/us5304233.pdf+sodiumborohydride+reducing+PGM%27s&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

is this sodium borohydride available? making it seems a bit complicated.


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## PreciousMexpert

> distilling copper nitrate, (adding copper or gold plated copper can assist creating NOx fumes in boil, which also is a way I get gold plating from Pins. killing two birds one stone) would get nitric back from copper chloride solutions, bubble NOx gas into water, for dilute nitric, which can then evaporate water from dilute nitric untill 68%HNO3 azeotrope, this would also concentrate the copper solution left behind'



How would I collect the gold once I add finger for deplating


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## butcher

Precious metal expert, 

This is not a good process for fingers. they should be treated differently, LazerSteve has a great process for fingers.

You need sulfuric with nitrates to create nitric acid,

I spent 8 hour tonight trying to make a post on my approach to pins and making nitric, and copper sulfate in same batch. must have lost contact with server and my computer ate it, I should learn to use that save button.
As a one finger typer and no skills in writing or spelling this will take awhile, I need sleep now, I will try and rewrite this, and post it soon.

I wrote a hard to read version when I first joined, hopefully I have improved on my writing skills and can make it were it is readable and people can understand it.


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## golddie

Hi Butcher
I look forward to seeing that file 
Thanks


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## butcher

I will try and post it in the other processes section today. kill two birds one rock.


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## Frankk12

> You can recover the copper adding table salt to the copper nitrate to form copper chloride,then dip some slabs of aluminium or iron and you will get a brown precipitate of copper which needs more refining,so you can use an electrolytical cell to get pure copper



This is a quote from Manuel.
I was wondering about the solution thats left over.
What is it called 
I would like to evaporate it and save it like as powder


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## lazersteve

It will form a crystal when hot, but absorbs water from the air when room temperature. 

This was discussed before here:

Copper Solutions

There are more posts on the topic, but I've got to run to the in-laws now for Christmas, so I'll have to get back to this thread later.

Steve


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## Frankk12

CuO + H2 ? Cu + H2O 

What does the question mark stand for


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## butcher

frank maybe just an arrow --> was too hard for them to to draw?
or maybe they think it might equal?
it has no meaning that way in a chemical formula, 
I may put one after an equation to note to myself that I am unsure if this is correct, or that I need follow up on this equation with ratio's ect.

copper cycle
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=copper+cycle&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10


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## jsargent

Okay... so here we are with loads of CuO from the borohydride drop. H2 gas was mentioned as a reducing agent, but by what method? Bubbling the gas thru a suspension of copper oxide in water? Heat as well? Dry gassing with heat? Seems like somethings got to aggressively kick off that oxygen but I don't know.


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## golddie

hrushi said that when he cements the copper from the copper nitrate solution with iron there is iron in the copper powder.

I saw that new video of his and he uses these copper powders to cement the silver from the silver nitrate solution

I would like to know how is the iron issue handled or it is not important and that I can use the copper powder for cementing silver without any problems 
Cam I just use it as it is.


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## Barren Realms 007

golddie said:


> hrushi said that when he cements the copper from the copper nitrate solution with iron there is iron in the copper powder.
> 
> I saw that new video of his and he uses these copper powders to cement the silver from the silver nitrate solution
> 
> I would like to know how is the iron issue handled or it is not important and that I can use the copper powder for cementing silver without any problems
> Cam I just use it as it is.



With the volume he is doing impurities are a minor problem.

With the volume you are doing use a slab of copper or a copper pipe to cement out your silver. When you start doing large volumes then you can consider copper powder to cement out your silver.


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## necromancer

lazersteve said:


> I'm working on a short video of converting dirty copper nitrate solutions into dilute nitric acid for reuse. It will be posted on my website when it is completed.
> 
> I'll add India to the shipping calculator on my website today.
> 
> Steve




has there been a video for this ?? i looked and didnt see it on lazersteves site original post is 4 years old 

thank you


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## solar_plasma

Juan Manuel Arcos Frank said:


> Hrushi:
> 
> The copper recovered by cementation is 99% pure,but it is unuseful for any purpose because copper needs to be very very pure (0.9995).This is why you need to refine the crude copper in an electrolytic cell.I post for you an article about the elctrolytic refining process and another one about copper scrap.
> 
> I hope it helps.
> 
> Have a nice day
> 
> Manuel



The links to the pdf's are dead. Could anybody re-post them?


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## belaeri

Juan Manuel Arcos Frank said:


> Hrushi:
> 
> The copper recovered by cementation is 99% pure,but it is unuseful for any purpose because copper needs to be very very pure (0.9995).This is why you need to refine the crude copper in an electrolytic cell.I post for you an article about the elctrolytic refining process and another one about copper scrap.
> 
> I hope it helps.
> 
> Have a nice day
> 
> Manuel




Could you repost these links? They do not exist in the archive anymore for some reason. 

Thanks!


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## jvaughan2222

lazersteve said:


> I'm working on a short video of converting dirty copper nitrate solutions into dilute nitric acid for reuse. It will be posted on my website when it is completed.
> 
> I'll add India to the shipping calculator on my website today.
> 
> Steve


Hello Steve, could you send me a link to that video please.
Thanks John


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## pawnshop

jvaughan2222 said:


> Hello Steve, could you send me a link to that video please.
> Thanks John


or put scrap carbon steel in it and the copper will cement out because of the reactivities of metals.


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## FrugalRefiner

pawnshop said:


> or put scrap carbon steel in it and the copper will cement out because of the reactivities of metals.


Copper, and anything else below iron in the reactivity series. You will not get just copper.

Dave


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