Ceramic CPU gold plated Lids

[lazersteve]

Here are a few pictures of some of the cpu lids I have run. I am looking for the pictures I have of the multilayered lids. :









You can see in the second photo above that several of the lids in the stack in the background still have a layer of gold on them, these are the ones that have a second coating under the first. I have closeup photo evidence of the multiple layers, still looking for the pictures. The gold layers are clearly visible with a layer of silver colored (nickel) between each gold layer. They tend to peel layer by layer. The inner gold layer is typically much thinner than the outer gold layer.

Steve

 

[lazersteve]

As a side comment. I do not use the method that Pat outlined. My method does not involve any periodic additions of chemicals. The acid mix I use requires no additions after started. Stirring the bucket once the reaction starts to bubble is required.

I have also stripped these in cyanide. The yields are lower than using the acid method that I developed.

Steve

 

[anachronism]

Thanks Steve

I too have had the ones that "don't strip as intended" as per your second pic. I'll take a closer look at the ones I have currently got in the system tonight but I've always though them to be a thinner plate without any buffer material. Of course I could be wrong as we all are sometimes.

I'll take the XRF gun home with me too and see if there's a difference in base material.

What's your preferred mix of Nitric/water for using one initial addition?

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

That sounds interesting.

How would they plate nickel onto a layer of gold?

 

[lazersteve]

I can't be sure it is nickel, but it is a layer of silvery white metal that is thick enough to peel off after the first soak. Typically you will see the corners of the multilayered lid have a shell of this white metal over them, sometimes with remaining Au from the outer Au layer. These corner shells easily peel off to reveal a second Au layer, all be it very thin compared to the outer layer of Au.

Look for the lids with sharp outer corners as that is where I see most of the multilayered ones. If I'm not mistaken they are on Orion cpus (double gold) and other non intel/amd marked cpus.

Steve

 

[patnor1011]

Jon, you should have quite a bit of orion lids in last batch we did.

 

[anachronism]

Jon, you should have quite a bit of orion lids in last batch we did.

Yes I do I'll take a closer look Pat. So Steve, the Nitric/water mix you recommend?

 

[lazersteve]

My mix uses more than just nitric and water. I developed this mix back in 2011 when I was running 600#+ of high grade ceramics per month. There were no Pentium I black bottom or AMD K6's in the shipments, 80%+ of each shipment contained gold lid cpus. This supply lasted almost 4 years before it finally dried up with the drop in Au prices.

It took a lot of trial and error to find the correct mix that would quickly strip the foils and leave the kovar mostly in tact.

I can turn 25# of clean gold plated lids into ready for market Au bar(s) in 48 hours. Smaller batches are quicker.

Steve

 

[anachronism]

Ahh from your previous posts you said you ran them in cold Nitric. So that's not the case, and you're not comfortable sharing right? No problem at all that's your prerogative. 8) If I were to take a wild guess it would be Hydrogen Peroxide as the additive.

I'm glad to hear it works extremely well though.

 

[lazersteve]

Nitric is in the mix, peroxide is not.

 

[anachronism]

I wasn't comfortable with this so I ran a test this week.

I took 0.5Kg of lids as per the previous batch mentioned by Pat and ran them the way we had dicsussed. Please refer to the two pics below. As you can see the vast majority of the lids relinquished their gold plating. The ones that didn't (many Orions as have been mentioned by Steve and Pat) have retained their plating.

If you look at the pic with three beakers the left has the stripped, and there are relatively few unstripped followed by a pic of the foils. The foils clearly show undissolved Nickel within the liquid. The second picture shows one of these lids with a visible Nickel flash, along with a number of lids that are only partially deplated all of which demonstrate a Nickel flash between the gold and base metal which IS in fact iron based as the rest are.

As such, there is no evidence for multi layered lids merely a difference in the barrier plating. I'm going to try the Nickel barrier-ed ones in a slightly different mix and I will post up the results so that everyone can benefit.

Steve I think you may have dissolved a lot of lids you didn't need to but I'd welcome your comments.

Jon

 

[lazersteve]

I can see there is no conviencing you Jon.

Steve

 

[lazersteve]

Digest all of the lids in the center beaker of the first picture and you will get another small yield of Au in addition to the foils you recovered in the first run.

The center beaker lids are the only ones that I would digest completely. The others are already stripped and do not require complete digestion.

Steve

 

[anachronism]

No problem. I'll strip the ones in the centre beaker completely, put pics up and then digest the remaining metal and if I'm wrong I'll happily admit it. 8)

 

[lazersteve]

Once I have exposed the inner layer I prefer to digest those remaining lids in AR since it is faster. The only reason I choose AR is because I don"t like to wait for the thin inner layer to strip. I guess you could use the sulfuric cell or many other methods to remove the inner layer, but each of these has their own issues as well.

All in all complete digestion is not the only way to be sure you get all the Au, but it is a sure fire way to address the oddball lids after the inital strip.

Steve

 

[anachronism]

Hi Steve

Where we are disagreeing is the existence of this "inner layer." The pics I have shown are the original layer, they just won't strip in Nitric effectively with the Nickel base. You can even see where a few have begun to do so slowly in the centre picture. Speaking practically the plates are really thin and the reasoning behind making them multi layered in the first place isn't clear. There's absolutely no physical evidence to show multi layering.

I'll run the tests I mentioned above but respectfully at this point we still have to agree to disagree on this.

Jon

 

[lazersteve]

The ones in the center beaker have already lost a layer of Au as evidence by the nickel layer in the center of the picture that is over the Au layer. None of the lids you ran started out as nickel colored lids so it is clear that the ones with a partial outer nickel layer have already shed a layer of Au.

This would have been easiest to see if you had some close up pictures of the lids prior to cleaning off the outer foils. The thick outer Au layer sheds first, then the middle nickel layer dissolves, exposing the inner thin Au layer.

Steve

 

[lazersteve]

This is a close up of your picture that clearly shows the nickel layer is over the remaining Au layer on several of the lids.



Steve

 

[anachronism]

Its the other way around mate- it's gold over the Nickel.

 

[lazersteve]

At this point we disagree.

The ones I see like this, the nickel is over the Au.

In your picture, the nickel is peeling off the Au just like I see all the time with my lid runs. I have confirmed this many times by taking a sharp pointed knife and inserting it under the nickel layer. When the nickel on the corners (like the one under the top one that is half and half in your enlarged picture ) is pulled away, a fresh layer of Au is exposed at the corners.


Steve