Aqua Regia without a heating element?

[Danyboi10]

Hey everyone. Is it possible to dissolve gold from ceramic CPUs using aqua regia BUT without a heating element? Everyone shows their process using a hot plate but I don't have one and there's not a chance I'm doing this in my kitchen.. I have hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, Sodium metabisulfate, and urea.

 

[necromancer]

yes you can, it will take longer to dissolve though.
there is no need for UREA.



EDIT:
misread op, rewrote for clarity.

 

[Danyboi10]

Thanks for the quick response, how long should I let it dissolve before I start adding the sodium metabisulfate? And about the urea.. All the chemicals came as a kit, the urea was just included.

 

[necromancer]

if you have read Hoke's book she tells you how much mixed HCL and Nitric Acid will dissolve each gram of gold.

weigh gold & do the math before adding to the AR, you will not need urea to kill free nitric because there will not be any.

you may also use HCL and Clorox Bleach its cheaper then nitric & does the same job, plus getting rid of chlorides is a simpler task then getting rid of nitrates.

(hope my spelling of chemical names is correct)

 

[Pantherlikher]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

What Kit did you buy and what booklet came with it?...

I'm betting it's just enough information to get you into a big mess and loss of PMs, (Precious Metals).

Since this is your first day here, please read the welcome section.
It should lead you down the path to finding everything you need to learn to properly recover and refine PMs from everything and just about anything.

Good luck and hopefully you'll park the chemicals and learn.

B.S.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Hey everyone. Is it possible to dissolve gold from ceramic CPUs using aqua regia BUT without a heating element? Everyone shows their process using a hot plate but I don't have one and there's not a chance I'm doing this in my kitchen.. I have hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, Sodium metabisulfate, and urea.

Thanks for the quick response, how long should I let it dissolve before I start adding the sodium metabisulfate? And about the urea.. All the chemicals came as a kit, the urea was just included.

Is it possible - yes. Is it the best way to go about things if you don't know what you're doing - no.
I'm going to assume (hope) you have sodium metabisulfite, not sodium metabisulfate, but you should probably check to be sure. They're both available. One will help you, one will not.

Urea should not be used in recovery and refining, even if it did come with your kit. Keep reading the forum and you'll learn better ways of doing things.

Dave