Hello all. This is my first post, I have never refined any metals before. Been reading the forums and taking notes, I plan to get that book on refining by Hoke and a chemistry textbook for a refresher course. Maybe buy a DVD from Lasersteve.
One thing I cannot seem to find, will an AP/CuCl solution dissolve silver? I know it can dissolve gold (although I don't want it to) and I think I read Lasersteve or someone suggest under the right conditions and with enough time it might put a dent a platinum, so I would assume it would disolve some silver along with other base metals.
If not, I think I can wash what remains in nitric acid to pull out silver along with any base metals that weren't dissolved by the AP. Would it be wise to wash the gold in nitric acid regardless before continuing to refining?
If it does dissolve in AP, how does one precipitate silver from it, and is there any way to test for silver? I know salt works with nitric acid (AgNO3 + NaCl -> AgCl + NaNO3), but can't see how NaCl would work with dropping AgCl from CuCl. With google I found a reference to a patent for "method for removal of silver from a copper chloride solution", suggesting it does dissolve, but if I have to screw with mercury to precipitate it then it might not be worth the bother for the silver.
Although there's probably no silver in the fingers just copper and gold, so I could proceed with AP on those, I'm not precisely sure where I might find what metals on these boards so my inclination is to be liberal with what I try to process. When you guys try to get silver off of circuit boards is it better to just start off with nitric to strip base metals?
While I am at it... it seems the AP process is problematic with plated pins and a lot of people use other methods. Would it be better to keep those aside for later processing in a batch of just pins with a different method or might it be worth a try tossing them in AP?
One thing I cannot seem to find, will an AP/CuCl solution dissolve silver? I know it can dissolve gold (although I don't want it to) and I think I read Lasersteve or someone suggest under the right conditions and with enough time it might put a dent a platinum, so I would assume it would disolve some silver along with other base metals.
If not, I think I can wash what remains in nitric acid to pull out silver along with any base metals that weren't dissolved by the AP. Would it be wise to wash the gold in nitric acid regardless before continuing to refining?
If it does dissolve in AP, how does one precipitate silver from it, and is there any way to test for silver? I know salt works with nitric acid (AgNO3 + NaCl -> AgCl + NaNO3), but can't see how NaCl would work with dropping AgCl from CuCl. With google I found a reference to a patent for "method for removal of silver from a copper chloride solution", suggesting it does dissolve, but if I have to screw with mercury to precipitate it then it might not be worth the bother for the silver.
Although there's probably no silver in the fingers just copper and gold, so I could proceed with AP on those, I'm not precisely sure where I might find what metals on these boards so my inclination is to be liberal with what I try to process. When you guys try to get silver off of circuit boards is it better to just start off with nitric to strip base metals?
While I am at it... it seems the AP process is problematic with plated pins and a lot of people use other methods. Would it be better to keep those aside for later processing in a batch of just pins with a different method or might it be worth a try tossing them in AP?
