Cell board AP process

[kjavanb123]

All

I have had this board from a cell phone and wanted to give AP a try.

Cell board to be processed


I put the pump along with the board and 200 ml hcl plus 100ml 3% peroxide in the pot. I have a 35% peroxide so I added 30ml of it to 70cc water to produce the 3% peroxide needed. Let the air pump to run and thr solution immidately changed color to the following


So how am I doing so far? Also since I am using air pump would that make the process any quicker or still should let it run for 12 hrs?

Thanks and regards
Kj

 

[butcher]

kjavanb123,
How are you doing?
From the picture and your question, I also have a question

Did you remove the screw,and the chips from the cell phone board first?

Is the air pump in the acid?

The air pump and electrical should be kept away from the acid, use a hose from the air pump, to pump air into the solution, it is hard for me to tell by the picture.
the color of the solution looks more like iron chloride than it does copper chloride to me.
Are you trying this with only one cell phone circuit board?

 

[kjavanb123]

Rusty,

Just a piece of cell board with ICs and screws are removed. Yes only one piece of cell phone board, the aqurium pump was placed inside the solution and it was working. Here is the picture of the solution with just few gold flakes and remaining of boards after half an hour of AP leach.



Again most of the gold got dissolved.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

So how am I doing so far?

Seriously? If you had posted this on April 1^st I would have sworn it was an April Fools joke. I'm sorry if that sounds rude, but you've been a member of this forum for 4 years and have made almost 500 posts. Is this really what you've "learned" here?

I put the pump along with the board and 200 ml hcl plus 100ml 3% peroxide in the pot.

the aqurium pump was placed inside the solution and it was working

Why? I have seen advice to use air pumps hundreds of times on the forum, and no one ever suggested throwing the pump into the solution. And using 200 ml of HCl and 30 ml of 35% H₂O₂ is way to much for 1 cell phone board.

I have a 35% peroxide so I added 30ml of it to 70cc water to produce the 3% peroxide needed.

:shock: That would create somewhere around 10%+ peroxide, not 3%.

Just a piece of cell board with ICs and screws are removed

Two of your photos clearly show that you did not remove the chips from the board. Why do you tell us you did?

Yes only one piece of cell phone board

I doubt you would see any appreciable gold from one single cell phone board.

Again most of the gold got dissolved.

Predictable. You used way too much H₂O₂.

How are you doing? Not so good from what I see.

Sorry,
Dave

 

[kjavanb123]

Dave,

Noted on your comments, I have never tried this AP methods so I am not familiar with it, I read Steve post on it and tried it with board available to me, just to see how it works.

I gotta change the air pump, this one still works, but apparently doesn't inject enough pressure of air into the solution that is why I put it in the pot.

I am not good with chemistry so that is for that.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[solar_plasma]

When I look at this glove, my hazmat soul is aching. That is no critic, just a little hint to all: Try to contaminate yourself as little as possible. For the first you will spread your hazardous materials (here: acids loaded with all kinds of poisonous metalions) all over. For the second many hazardous materials will soon (thick CSA gloves 10-30 minutes...latex? - count down 50 seconds) diffuse through the plastics without you get aware of it. See them as your last line of defense! That's what they are.

If you know you will and want to contaminate them, because that will make work easier, then take more than one pair at once and take off the outer pair, when contaminated.

 

[kjavanb123]

Thanks for hint on usage of right gloves, well noted,

and also per previous forms, all the mounted components on the board were removed after taking the pics and prior to the AP process.

Regards,
Kevin

 

[ovidiuanghel]

the aqurium pump was placed inside the solution and it was working.

Please tell me this is a joke!
:lol:

 

[butcher]

Kevin,
You do need more work to get things right, and with only one cell phone board, and some of the other mistakes, you may not be able to tell much from what you are doing here, the trace of gold would be very hard to find.

At this point I say put this solution in your stock pot, get a good drink and read up on the process, collect more material.

Basically you are learning you did a few things wrong, and that is helpful, but you can learn better if you get more things right, you need to start off with a larger batch of materials, also something easier to work with, cell phones the gold will be so thin, and you have a mix of metals that will give trouble.

How about you finish this project, and then you gather up some memory fingers, at least a pound of close cut memory fingers, while collecting these spend time studying and making notes of the process, then when you’re ready start a post and get all of these critiques to help you with plans and through the process. If you need help with questions I will be glad to help you get started.

You are lucky you did not hurt yourself with that air pump; I do not know that I would trust it now to be safe, even though it may still work, if acid got inside the pump.

I agree with the other members here, you need to improve your lab skills, and your lab safety, you need more study on a subject before attempting, and you need to start off with enough material to get results, but you already know all of this, you just need to put what you know into action...
And you also need a little help from the members, I have a few memory sticks, I can send you, maybe someone else has a few, maybe we can help you get up to speed on this, in this thread, send me your mailing address And I will mail you a few fingers to help you get started (if you promise to get that drink and study the process, so you do not lose that little bit of gold in the fingers).

 

[butcher]

I do not know if English is Kevin's language, and he may have a hard time getting supplies, or access to a computer, but I can tell he is doing the best he can to learn, he is also a big enough man to take the criticism, and as far as I am concerned he is doing a good job, sure he could do better, so can most all of us, Kevin is here on the forum like the rest of us to learn, and if we try to help Kevin then well that is what the forum is all about.

Heck if we all already knew everything, and could do everything, we would not be here would we.

 

[g_axelsson]

I put the pump along with the board and 200 ml hcl plus 100ml 3% peroxide in the pot. I have a 35% peroxide so I added 30ml of it to 70cc water to produce the 3% peroxide needed.

Check your math... 35% * 30/(30+70) = 12%, still too concentrated and probably why you dissolved your gold.
... if you really dissolved the gold. What does a stannous test give? The gold on the pcb is only flash gold and a lot thinner than your ordinary fingers so it will break up into fine pieces and could easily hide among the other sediments on the bottom of the beaker.

To dilute 35% H₂O₂ into 3% you have to mix it with 35/3-1 = 10.7 parts water and one part H₂O₂.

Göran