Hi guys... First post, and I wanted to ask a few questions before I start making mistakes.
I read Hoke, watched every video on LaserSteve's site (couldn't get enough of those, loved 'em!), and have a pretty decent general background in chemistry (though more on the organic side, not so much with metals). I think I've reached the point that I understand the AP/CuCl2 process well enough to try a small test batch with some simple clean gold pins.
So... I headed out to Home Depot to pick up my reagents, and already made a really dumb mistake - Somehow I ended up with Kleen-Strip's crap-buffered-with-who-knows-what green/safer/low-fume muriatic acid. Fortunately I noticed my mistake before I added it to anything, but not until after I opened it (so I can't really take it back to the store).
Now to my first question - Can I do anything useful with it (I don't have any concrete that needs washing :roll: ), or should I just neutralize it with NaOH and write it off? I was thinking that perhaps I could use it straight as a pre-treatment to leach out the ferrous metals (and then remove it before starting with "real" HCl), but with unknown additives in it, am I risking even that leaving me an awful mess to deal with?
Second, I notice everyone uses 3% H2O2; given the ready availability of concentrations up to 30% (100 volume), is it not better to keep the acid concentration higher by having less water diluting the solution (which would also leave less liquid to deal with at the end)?
I also had a (not entirely unrelated) question about how to deal with all the "base" (and even "heavy") metal salts I'll end up with - I understand moving down the reactivity series to selectively precipitate out specific metals, but what to people do with, for example, lead, cobalt, and chromium? Do any legit chemical waste disposal companies accept low quantities from individuals?
Thanks!
I read Hoke, watched every video on LaserSteve's site (couldn't get enough of those, loved 'em!), and have a pretty decent general background in chemistry (though more on the organic side, not so much with metals). I think I've reached the point that I understand the AP/CuCl2 process well enough to try a small test batch with some simple clean gold pins.
So... I headed out to Home Depot to pick up my reagents, and already made a really dumb mistake - Somehow I ended up with Kleen-Strip's crap-buffered-with-who-knows-what green/safer/low-fume muriatic acid. Fortunately I noticed my mistake before I added it to anything, but not until after I opened it (so I can't really take it back to the store).
Now to my first question - Can I do anything useful with it (I don't have any concrete that needs washing :roll: ), or should I just neutralize it with NaOH and write it off? I was thinking that perhaps I could use it straight as a pre-treatment to leach out the ferrous metals (and then remove it before starting with "real" HCl), but with unknown additives in it, am I risking even that leaving me an awful mess to deal with?
Second, I notice everyone uses 3% H2O2; given the ready availability of concentrations up to 30% (100 volume), is it not better to keep the acid concentration higher by having less water diluting the solution (which would also leave less liquid to deal with at the end)?
I also had a (not entirely unrelated) question about how to deal with all the "base" (and even "heavy") metal salts I'll end up with - I understand moving down the reactivity series to selectively precipitate out specific metals, but what to people do with, for example, lead, cobalt, and chromium? Do any legit chemical waste disposal companies accept low quantities from individuals?
Thanks!