I've been refining a lot of silver from circuit breakers, contacts from industrial motor starters and contacts from other various industrial waste I happen to pick up along the way doing my job as a boiler service tech. So I've attached pics of my quandry.. Basically, this is a solution with sulphuric acid and potassium nitrate, and distilled water I used it to dissolve the contacts. The filtered solution contained no solids, so I added table salt to turn it into AgCl. When I did, the only noticeable reaction was a miniscule amount of what could be AgCl, but it was kinda powdery (as wet powder swirling around In a solution), and not clumpy and brilliant like I'm used to seeing. So I set it aside, intending to seek advice on it the next day.
The next day my nitric acid arrived, and I had a couple of good sized batches of more contacts, so I basically forgot about this solution. It sat for a period of time.. I'd say a week or 2?? Anyways, I was rounding my lab equipment up and I came across the bowl with what now contained a brilliant deep blue color. At first I ddnt know what this was. I swirled it around and saw more white swirly stuff.. Again, appearing differently than the clumpy AgCl I know and love. Upon closer inspection, I see that it's not a white powdery substance swirling around in the beautiful blue solution, but a light silver colored substance. I also noticed blue crystals about the size of pinto beans.. A lot of them. I observed a few of these crystals and some of them have metallic silver on them... I think... It seems anyways. And lastly, the solution itself literally sparkles. It's saturated with something that gives it a distinct metallic luster, floating around the inside of it. The best way I can describe it is if you've ever looked at your girlfriends makeup containers, You might see a container with blue makeup with metallic particles added to it to give it this same sparkle, or perhaps the metallic blue paint job on a sexy sports car.. How you can almost see "into" the paint. I was wondering if it could possibly be a high quality silver. Something had to have happened to the contacts that were dissolved in this solution.. Any ideas on what it is, or how to handle it from here? I took a short video, but apparently the file is too large.. Just a 10 second video.. Less even. Anyways.. I wish I could illustrate the swirly blue metallic nature of it a bit better.
The next day my nitric acid arrived, and I had a couple of good sized batches of more contacts, so I basically forgot about this solution. It sat for a period of time.. I'd say a week or 2?? Anyways, I was rounding my lab equipment up and I came across the bowl with what now contained a brilliant deep blue color. At first I ddnt know what this was. I swirled it around and saw more white swirly stuff.. Again, appearing differently than the clumpy AgCl I know and love. Upon closer inspection, I see that it's not a white powdery substance swirling around in the beautiful blue solution, but a light silver colored substance. I also noticed blue crystals about the size of pinto beans.. A lot of them. I observed a few of these crystals and some of them have metallic silver on them... I think... It seems anyways. And lastly, the solution itself literally sparkles. It's saturated with something that gives it a distinct metallic luster, floating around the inside of it. The best way I can describe it is if you've ever looked at your girlfriends makeup containers, You might see a container with blue makeup with metallic particles added to it to give it this same sparkle, or perhaps the metallic blue paint job on a sexy sports car.. How you can almost see "into" the paint. I was wondering if it could possibly be a high quality silver. Something had to have happened to the contacts that were dissolved in this solution.. Any ideas on what it is, or how to handle it from here? I took a short video, but apparently the file is too large.. Just a 10 second video.. Less even. Anyways.. I wish I could illustrate the swirly blue metallic nature of it a bit better.