AP for dissolving larger quantities of base metals.

[youngleo]

I was wondering if it was economical to dissolve larger amounts of base metals using AP? I have never used this method (or any other method for that matter) but I did take organic chemistry in college. From viewing Steve's website, I know that it is effective on dissolving a small amount from fingers but will that same method work for greater amounts? Like 10x, 100x and 1000x the values of base metal? I have seen that some users mention reusing the AP solution. If this is possible, what methods has anyone had success using? Perhaps the HOH can be re-oxygenated and the Cu can be precipitated out periodically to rejuvenate the solution? Perhaps there is a better method? I am a newbie and am interested in this as a hobby. I am not a newbie to chemistry. I am willing to acquire most lab equipment that I would need and could make almost anything else. Thanks for your time in advance.

PS. If a thread already exists on this subject, I apologize. Please point me in the right direction.

 

[Barren Realms 007]

What chemicals you use is going to depend on what type of items you are going to process. Diffrent items require diffrent types of processing.

You can rejuvinae AP by putting the copper saturated soultion in a bucket with steel. The a lot of the copper will cement out because of the steel. When this is done you can bubble air thru the solution to add oxygen to make the solution reusable. Or add more peroxide when you are ready to reuse the solution.

Smaller batches are preferred to large batches till experience is obtained in the use of the chemicals so that you know what your solutions are doing and what reactions are taking place.

Paitence is a virtue here. 8)

Do a lot of reading and searching and ask resonable questions. There are a lot of good people here to help out with what you run into.

 

[Oz]

You can rejuvinae AP by putting the copper saturated soultion in a bucket with steel. The a lot of the copper will cement out because of the steel. When this is done you can bubble air thru the solution to add oxygen to make the solution reusable. Or add more peroxide when you are ready to reuse the solution.

Are you sure of that? I have not done that myself but it seems counter intuitive. Would not steel added to the solution cause problems?

 

[youngleo]

Yes, I am thinking Fe + CuCl2 --> FeCl2 + Cu where Cu is the precipitate. Is this an ionic equilibrium reaction or does Fe competitively inhibit the chloride ion for further use? I am a little rusty on this aspect. (no pun intended)

Perhaps the HOH reclaims the the Chloride ion for you? (I am just thinking out loud here)

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Try this thread.

http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=3384

 

[Anonymous]

It has been my experience that when the HCL gets used up you will get a white salt precipate, this is excess copper as copper (I) chloride, I filter this off, it is relatively pure copper chloride since it is crystals.

Then I add more HCL, to recharge the acid, and H2O2 to keep going, now if you have a large amount of materials to process a air pump is better. I have access to compressed oxygen so sometimes I bubble that through the solution.

What you do with the copper salt? put it in a distillation rig and add sulfuric acid and distill off your HCL to use next time.
Put the copper sulfate in cell with lead anode and copper cathode this will plate out the copper and regenerate your sulfuric.

Jim

 

[Barren Realms 007]

What you do with the copper salt? put it in a distillation rig and add sulfuric acid and distill off your HCL to use next time.
Put the copper sulfate in cell with lead anode and copper cathode this will plate out the copper and regenerate your sulfuric.

Jim

Right now I am saving these items to process later but I would also be interested in seeing how others process these items.