large quantity of gold coated mylar

bobsmith · Nov 29, 2012

I have been spring cleaning my warehouse and came across a few rolls of gold coated mylar I got surplus from a NASA auction a long while back. To my surprise the OEM lists the goal coating as 'typically' 900 angstroms on their web site. Given the large surface area of the material (100 meters by 1.22 meters) that works out to about 200 grams per roll (I have three).

Can anyone suggest a method of recovery from such a large area of material. Ive recovered gold film from vacuum deposition equipment before so I'm comfortable working with acids, but this is much more surface that Ive ever had to deal with.

BTW, I should point out that there is an indeterminate, but presumably very thin layer of nickle between the gold and mylar.

TIA!

g_axelsson · Nov 29, 2012

Wouldn't incineration concentrate the gold to an easily processed mass?

/Göran

Westerngs · Nov 29, 2012

If the material were mine, I would try dissolution in aqua regia.

Obviously, you would need the patience to cut the mylar into strips that would fit your container.

Working under a fume hood would be a must, as well as good personal protective equipment.

Incineration would also work, but I would be afraid of the large amounts of black smoke it would generate.

cnbarr · Nov 29, 2012

I was going to suggest feeding it through a paper shredder till it's of manageable mass.

Geo · Nov 29, 2012

incineration is your friend. i heard that from a very learned and wise man. incinerate the material well. do not pyrolize because that does not remove the carbon. another solution would be to cut the material into strips and heat until the Mylar melts. form this into drops or balls to reduce bulk and melt in a crucible directly.any fuel type furnace will take care of the smoke and carbon.after pouring you impure gold bars, it will be a simple task to refine or sell as is.

bobsmith · Nov 29, 2012

if i incinerate the mylar, would i not have to worry about a significant amount of gold going up the flue? remember 900 angstroms is only 0.09 microns. thats 500 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

Geo · Nov 29, 2012

if you keep the ash inside, the gold will be fine. i was worried about vaporizing the bonding wires in my flatpak chips because they were white hot. the are about 1/10 the diameter of a human hair. i was assured they were ok and it turned out pretty good. you should be able to melt them first to reduce the bulk and keep the ash pile down. melt them into a slag and then heat them to at least 1,000 degrees F for a short time should remove all the carbon as long as there is oxygen available.

Pantherlikher · Nov 29, 2012

Couldn't you melt it in a large pot and let the gold settle to the bottom?.. Then pour off the melted mylar. This would remove alot of unwanted material.

rewalston · Nov 29, 2012

Could you do the same thing to keyboard mylars? I've been saving mine for future silver recovery, but I have every chemical I need except nitric (or the chemicals to make it).

Rusty

Irons2 · Nov 29, 2012

bobsmith said:
if i incinerate the mylar, would i not have to worry about a significant amount of gold going up the flue? remember 900 angstroms is only 0.09 microns. thats 500 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

You should worry about the Nickle forming a gaseous Carbonyl. The incineration would be a reducing one, unless you fed a lot of O2. The Nickel Oxide would still be a hazard. Mylar doesn't burn very easily.

You might make more by selling it on fleabay. That material is an excellent IR reflector and was likely used as a heat shield to keep spacecraft cool.
I would bet that Space aficionados would love to have some as a souvenir from the NASA Space Program. I would.

large quantity of gold coated mylar

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