au-artifax
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2013
- Messages
- 82
Hello.
While getting ready to re-precipitate some gold to purify it more, I took a break after finding I had no litmus paper to help in bringing down the gold with Oxalic acid. Everything is ready, but this side-track was good.
I decided to do a full blown how-to on making your own litmus paper, but the process of using the strips you'll make also uses some chromatography principles.
My three had to's were that it be cheap, quick, and easy. Here's all you need: I bought a small bottle of RED wine for $1.99, a notebook full of paper for $.25, and used a wide shallow casserole dish for $.00. How's that for cheap!!!
NOTE: use fresh unopened wine that has not had a chance to become acidic. It won't work right if your wine has started to become vinegar.
The How to MAKE: cut paper any size that fits in the dish. It is OK to stack as many layers as you want... the more the better. It only takes a little wine to make a lot of paper. Add the wine first, then lay in the paper and let soak. There is no need to heat it, and all it takes is 15 minutes to get satisfactory results. I like to let it soak longer though, 30-60 minutes.
What you will see is the paper becomes blue, (not red). That says it is ready.
Take the sheets of paper out and lay on a flat surface to dry. When dry it starts out as blue, but turns pink after a while which is OK.
Once dry it is ready for use!
The how to USE:
This paper has the ability to distinguish acid from base, and give a general idea of how close to neutral your solution is. Here is how it works: I did a series of tests while slowly adjusting the PH throughout the series. Look at the following pic...
(The lower part of strips pictured shows results)
Notice that there will be some red on any solution that is somewhat acidic. But if you look close you will notice at some point a blue line starts to show up in the middle of the strip (starts at #10). The wider the strip, the closer to neutral you are. As the tests progressed, you can see finally the strip with no red and just blue (#18 in series). This solution is nuetral. Next the strips start showing a greenish tint as it progresses towards the yellow of base solution. Although I got sloppy in the end of the series, you can see the blue line getting smaller again as it nears base.
How does it work? As the PH goes up the solution experiences a loss of acidity as it soaks through the paper (like chromatography) and that is how the blue line starts to appear (the neutral color). And that is how we can get a feel for PH. When the red finally FAILS to show on the strip you are right around 7 on the PH scale.
In a test series with different acids the same results were found, with the blue line appearing and growing as PH got higher. Oxalic acid was cool though as it was a neat dark pink color (not red) during the series done on it.
So if you just need a general idea of where your solution is on the PH scale, then here is your way to have a lifetime supply of litmus chromatography paper for dirt cheap.
The only thing I couldn't price out earlier was a neat little storage bottle. An old pill bottle works too, so I guess you can add $.00 to the cost.
Hope this helps someone out.
Cheers!
While getting ready to re-precipitate some gold to purify it more, I took a break after finding I had no litmus paper to help in bringing down the gold with Oxalic acid. Everything is ready, but this side-track was good.
I decided to do a full blown how-to on making your own litmus paper, but the process of using the strips you'll make also uses some chromatography principles.
My three had to's were that it be cheap, quick, and easy. Here's all you need: I bought a small bottle of RED wine for $1.99, a notebook full of paper for $.25, and used a wide shallow casserole dish for $.00. How's that for cheap!!!
NOTE: use fresh unopened wine that has not had a chance to become acidic. It won't work right if your wine has started to become vinegar.
The How to MAKE: cut paper any size that fits in the dish. It is OK to stack as many layers as you want... the more the better. It only takes a little wine to make a lot of paper. Add the wine first, then lay in the paper and let soak. There is no need to heat it, and all it takes is 15 minutes to get satisfactory results. I like to let it soak longer though, 30-60 minutes.
What you will see is the paper becomes blue, (not red). That says it is ready.
Take the sheets of paper out and lay on a flat surface to dry. When dry it starts out as blue, but turns pink after a while which is OK.
Once dry it is ready for use!
The how to USE:
This paper has the ability to distinguish acid from base, and give a general idea of how close to neutral your solution is. Here is how it works: I did a series of tests while slowly adjusting the PH throughout the series. Look at the following pic...
(The lower part of strips pictured shows results)
Notice that there will be some red on any solution that is somewhat acidic. But if you look close you will notice at some point a blue line starts to show up in the middle of the strip (starts at #10). The wider the strip, the closer to neutral you are. As the tests progressed, you can see finally the strip with no red and just blue (#18 in series). This solution is nuetral. Next the strips start showing a greenish tint as it progresses towards the yellow of base solution. Although I got sloppy in the end of the series, you can see the blue line getting smaller again as it nears base.
How does it work? As the PH goes up the solution experiences a loss of acidity as it soaks through the paper (like chromatography) and that is how the blue line starts to appear (the neutral color). And that is how we can get a feel for PH. When the red finally FAILS to show on the strip you are right around 7 on the PH scale.
In a test series with different acids the same results were found, with the blue line appearing and growing as PH got higher. Oxalic acid was cool though as it was a neat dark pink color (not red) during the series done on it.
So if you just need a general idea of where your solution is on the PH scale, then here is your way to have a lifetime supply of litmus chromatography paper for dirt cheap.
The only thing I couldn't price out earlier was a neat little storage bottle. An old pill bottle works too, so I guess you can add $.00 to the cost.
Hope this helps someone out.
Cheers!
