Electrochemistry Brown powder, not black???

[no1special]

I ran several pieces of HGP scrap in a sulfuric cell (rooto for my acid) with a 12v battery charger which seemed to go as planned and looked just like the video. My amps would jump up with each new piece and when the bubbles and amps stopped the scrap was stripped of the gold color as expected. However after letting it settle for 48 hrs instead of a black powder under a clear liquid, I have a very small layer of clear, followed by a very muddy brown layer with some powder on the bottom that looks very dark brown, but by no means black. The temp did drop out on me this week and my acid in fact was even frozen. I am assuming that had something to do with it and hoping that nothing was lost. Besides me...

 

[butcher]

Is this a concentrated sulfuric acid cell?
It has to get awful cold to freeze concentrated sulfuric acid.


http://www.sulphuric-acid.com/TechManual/Properties/properties_acid_freezingpt.htm

 

[no1special]

yes was full strength rooto, but got down to single digits and had an ice layer towards the bottom of the acid

 

[Lino1406]

Seems the high voltage stripped copper too

 

[butcher]

I would say your sulfuric has absorbed water, and the water is what froze not the acid, the water is also why the cell is dissolving copper and other base metals.

Concentrated sulfuric acid will absorb water out of the air or its surroundings like a sponge, they use concentrated sulfuric acid as a desiccant for its hygroscopic property as drying agent, and for its properties of its ability to pull water from its surroundings in the lab in a desiccators.

concentrated sulfuric acid has an strong affinity for water, sulfuric acid is an excellent dehydrating agent. Concentrated sulfuric acid has a very powerful dehydrating property, removing water (H2O) from other compounds including moisture from air.

Cold air holds much more moisture than Hot air, and if its foggy, raining or so on, it would not take long for the sulfuric acid in your cell to begin suck up water and to get diluted.

(I had trouble with what the word that they called these water or moisture absorbers):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiccant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiccator

 

[Palladium]

hygroscopic

 

[butcher]

Who thought of all these types of words, He must have been a real joker.

 

[nickvc]

Who thought of all these types of words, He must have been a real joker.

Probably English :shock: :roll: :lol:

 

[Lino1406]

Sorry, I meant the too high voltage
stripped the gold and it should be
found at the cathode

 

[steyr223]

What do you call a person that speaks 2 languages.
Bilingual

What do you call a person that speaks 3 languages.
Trilingual

What do you call a person that speaks 1 language.
American :lol:

 

[butcher]

:lol: Some of us do not speak it that well either