Best way to deal with Magnetic Silver Contacts ?

[razvanflorin]

Hi Everybody ! First i wanna say thanks for answering my other questations before. Today i have another one

What's the best way to deal with Magnetic Silver Contacts, how to refine ?
i have just the silver contacts without any CuZn alloy attached on them, just the contacts.
I have 1 KG .

Does they need a special or different process or just to throw them in nitric, wait to dissolve then percipitate ?

Kind Regards - Florin.

 

[Dobermannz]

Hi, I been worked silver contacts time on time, just using nitric acid. I do this:
1 dissolve. For 1kg I use 1.5lt of nitric acid.
2
Decantate. Take out the used acid, rinse whit tap water the settlements and bath whit the same acid the contacts that remain.
3 Boil the acid whit the contacts inside.
4Repeat step 2.
5 leave the fragments that still remain, dissolve in the acid, it takes from 2 days to 2 weeks, dont desperate!
In mi experience it contains up to 80% silver. So its a good reward. Good luck.

 

[upcyclist]

2 Decantate. Take out the used acid, rinse whit tap water the settlements and bath whit the same acid the contacts that remain.

Do you mean the exact same acid (I.e., used), or same type of acid (i.e., fresh nitric)? While you could reuse the nitric if you precipitate the silver as AgCl with just barely enough HCl (making sure there is no/minimal free HCl when you're done), most other precipitation methods (precip with NaCl or cement with copper) leave the nitric spent.

3 Boil the acid whit the contacts inside.

Please don't boil nitric acid. It's not only unnecessary, it's incredibly dangerous.

 

[Dobermannz]

Hi
I mean the same used acid, I didnt say the silver has precipítate yet. To precipitate it I use common salt.
Thanks for the advice about boil nitric acid, yes its extremely dangerous, but it works better as I see.