Acid Peroxide to remove silver plate from jewelry.

[mabgrf]

I am trying to remove some silver plating from some cheap jewelry.
Not sure if I have Silver Oxide or not?

I used 32.5% HCL and 3% H202, about a 3 to 1 ratio of H202 to HCL. It reacted pretty quickly and turned green within a few minutes. I left it site outside overnight last night and this evening when I checked on it the solution looks black. I was hoping the silver would plate off like Gold would, but I am not sure what happened.

Would the black color be the silver reacting with the peroxide making Silver Oxide?

Are there any recommendations on how to get the silver out now?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Geo]

patience.one day and a night isnt long enough for the reaction to have taken place.sounds like you may have some silver plated steel in the batch.steel makes AP turn black like that.silver will not dissolve in hcl acid.

 

[mabgrf]

Ok,
Thanks,
I have used AP to remove gold plating from some old mainframe components, and computer pins but I have not seen it turn black like that before.

 

[Geo]

some plastics will dissolve in hcl acid and turn the solution black or steel like i said but it shouldn't effect the reaction.silver may not come off in flakes but as finely divided particles.complete the process and keep us posted.

 

[mabgrf]

Eventually the solution went to emerald green from what looked like black (took about a week or two for everything to finally dissolve, and upon further inspection there is fine silver looking powder in the bottom, and what looks like clear to white crystals which are suspended in the solution and not just on the bottom or floating on top.

pics posted.
On the side view there is a defect in the glass jar so it is not a chunk of crystal. On the bottom view the bottom of the jar has a water stain on the outside so it may look like a milky substance, but it is really on the outside.
Hope the pics help.

Thanks.

 

[Dr. Poe]

Dissolved iron from steel leaves graphite. Silver has to have a base metal under plate to stick to iron. Nickel is usually used.
Nickel salts resemble copper salts hence the name "Nickel" from "Cupernickel" meaning "Copper demon".
The nickel coat is by passed by using nickel/iron stainless steel. Unheated, stainless steel resists solution into AP.
The silver itself is probably an alloy of silver with copper or with nickel or with palladium to give it a hard wear-resistant quality. An iron nail (steel) will coat red from copper and/or black from nickel when a drop of solution is applied to the surface of the nail. If it's yellow or yellowish brown, you've got white gold.
Pure silver, pure gold, pure platinum(absolutely pure) are too soft to use for almost anything. Copper is often a component of stainless steel as well. Look at the silver on the bottom. Is it milk white or gray-white?
Hope that I've given you some help.
Dr. Poe

 

[mabgrf]

Thank you for the information.
Upon looking at it again it looks like greyish metal on the bottom which seems to have a tail or milky shell when swirled. I don't have any clean steel laying around but I will try that soon.