Arguro_Testudo
New member
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2021
- Messages
- 3
Good morning everyone.
I dissolved 500 grams of silver plated copper braid from industrial RG142 cabling into 1.2L of nitric acid and 500mL of distilled water. Not knowing exactly what the silver content is, I made a spreadsheet in attempt to make an accurate guess. The solution completely dissolved the braid without excess nitric, confirmed by putting a few small pieces of sterling silver into the solution while still on the heat and no subsequent reaction was observed. The braid is entirely clean and only consists of Ag and Cu metal.
I then let the solution cool down to about 85-90 degrees F and hastily added some clean stripped solid copper wire to let the silver cement over night. Unfortunately I could not stir the solution overnight, underestimating the importance of the stirring, and when I inspected the reaction this morning, I discovered that the copper wires were stuck in place and that the solution had 'solidified'. The 'solidified' copper nitrate looks like bright blue rock candy and I don't know how to dissolve it so that it can be filtered. There appears to be some silver at the bottom, but the solution was now almost entirely solid copper nitrate. Once I stirred it up, it seemed to go back to a liquid, so I pulled the copper wires out and stirred it more vigorously.
Should I heat this solution or add more distilled water or both? I can try to cement the silver out again, but it appears that I had too much copper dissolved in too little solution and I'm not sure how to rectify the situation. I'm a newbie at this process, but I did my initial test with this braid using 250 g dissolved in 800mL of nitric acid and 1L of distilled water; which was a little bit too much solution but it did not solidify like this.
Thank you for any help or advice that can be given, once this process is standardized, it should be pretty straightforward. I had just never seen the copper nitrate solidify like this in any tutorial.
I dissolved 500 grams of silver plated copper braid from industrial RG142 cabling into 1.2L of nitric acid and 500mL of distilled water. Not knowing exactly what the silver content is, I made a spreadsheet in attempt to make an accurate guess. The solution completely dissolved the braid without excess nitric, confirmed by putting a few small pieces of sterling silver into the solution while still on the heat and no subsequent reaction was observed. The braid is entirely clean and only consists of Ag and Cu metal.
I then let the solution cool down to about 85-90 degrees F and hastily added some clean stripped solid copper wire to let the silver cement over night. Unfortunately I could not stir the solution overnight, underestimating the importance of the stirring, and when I inspected the reaction this morning, I discovered that the copper wires were stuck in place and that the solution had 'solidified'. The 'solidified' copper nitrate looks like bright blue rock candy and I don't know how to dissolve it so that it can be filtered. There appears to be some silver at the bottom, but the solution was now almost entirely solid copper nitrate. Once I stirred it up, it seemed to go back to a liquid, so I pulled the copper wires out and stirred it more vigorously.
Should I heat this solution or add more distilled water or both? I can try to cement the silver out again, but it appears that I had too much copper dissolved in too little solution and I'm not sure how to rectify the situation. I'm a newbie at this process, but I did my initial test with this braid using 250 g dissolved in 800mL of nitric acid and 1L of distilled water; which was a little bit too much solution but it did not solidify like this.
Thank you for any help or advice that can be given, once this process is standardized, it should be pretty straightforward. I had just never seen the copper nitrate solidify like this in any tutorial.
