Silver plating recovery

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Metal Rabbit

New member
Joined
Apr 2, 2021
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1
I was removing silver plating using the reverse electrolysers method with sodium chloride solution. This also removed a lot of base metals. So I thought it best to reduce the medals in nitric acid and precipitate the silver out. I wash the metal powders with distilled water 3 or 4 times and then added nitric acid. All of the metals dissolved in solution. My problem is when I tried to put copper in it it still dissolves the copper. Salt Solution seems to do nothing at all.
So my question is how do I recover the silver out of the nitric acid solution? I'm new at this and all the videos I watched seems to make it look pretty easy. I even tried to precipitate the silver out using Hydrochloric acid with no results. I am completely baffled.
Thanks to everyone in advance who responds!
 
Dissolve more silver and base metals from the next batch with this solution.
Or leave the copper in to consume the nitric until it cements out the silver.
With only a bit of free nitric you should see silver cementing along with bubbles coming from the copper and fresh tcemented silver.
If there are only bubbles, there is little to no silver and/or you have used way toooo much nitric.
Next time try covering in distilled water and adding ml's of nitric at a time with very low heat.
 
Metal Rabbit said:
I even tried to precipitate the silver out using Hydrochloric acid with no results. I am completely baffled.
Thanks to everyone in advance who responds!

At this stage there were no silver in solution. Adding chloride ions to a silver nitrate solution always gives silver chloride precipitate.
Either you formed silver chloride during electrolysis, the silver is still on the objects or your silver plated objects were not plated with silver.

Göran
 
g_axelsson said:
Metal Rabbit said:
I even tried to precipitate the silver out using Hydrochloric acid with no results. I am completely baffled.
Thanks to everyone in advance who responds!

At this stage there were no silver in solution. Adding chloride ions to a silver nitrate solution always gives silver chloride precipitate.
Either you formed silver chloride during electrolysis, the silver is still on the objects or your silver plated objects were not plated with silver.

Göran

I just completed my first silver deplating using sodium chloride solution. . . did not think it would put the silver into solution like that! I have much to learn. . .
 
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