Dry Silver chloride-- Now What??

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

Platdigger:

Yes,Sir...sodium sulphide will precipitate gold too,but...How did you get the gold into the thiosulfate solution?.....mmmmm.... Are you working with the gold thiosulfate process without saying a word to us?...Come on,Platdigger...share your experience with the nice guys of this wonderful Forum.

Kindest Regards.

Manuel

 

[saadat68]

NH4OH
Karo. Fast and easy. This is how I would do it. Grind it up to face powder. A blender would probably work well. I would then weigh some out and add, for each troy ounce (31.1 grams) of AgCl, 100 ml of water, 16.5 grams of sodium hydroxide, and 11 ml of light Karo syrup. Add the powdered AgCl and stir for a long time until you have a uniform gray cement-like powder. This is best done with a motorized stirrer, preferably one that will chop up the material. You could use some form of 5 gallon paint stirrer chucked in a drill. A big blender might work great for the conversion, also. Blenders also provide heat, which would speed things up. In any case, the solution will turn a dark red/brown color.

Start small.

Hi I couldn't understand!
Does this method work for dry AgCl powder ?

 

[Topher_osAUrus]

Hi I couldn't understand!
Does this method work for dry AgCl powder ?

Well, he did reply in the thread entitled "dry silver chloride" so, it would be a safe bet to assume so.

Could also try any other methods for silver chloride, may just be a pain since drying out changes the structure of the AgCl and it clumps together so it iss hard to reach every molecule for conversion.

One method I found very interesting, that I am going to be trying with my accidentally dried AgCl is either melting it and pouring anodes, or getting it damp again and compressing it.
Then hanging them in a dilute solution of zinc chloride connected to bars of iron that will also be hanging in the solution.
Allegedly, this will convert all of the AgCl to metallic silver (with the silver keeping the same shape) and the iron will be sacrificial.

I read that in an old book, havent really seen it anywhere else, so there has to be a reason why it has fallen out of favor. Im guessing because melting AgCl is dangerous and foolish. And letting your AgCl dry out is troublesome.

 

[saadat68]

Thanks Topher
I had a mistake in my first experience and produce some AgCl. I didn't know they are AgCl and let them dry. Don't worth to melt with flux because some of them are wet. I want to mix dried powder with wet powder and add caustic and then refine with nitric acid again

In this post I found I can use NaOH for dried AgCl
http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=7305#p66322

 

[Timothy Clancy]

Now that it has dried, I'd be inclined to suggest it be furnace reduced, using soda ash and borax. You should expect the process to be hard on the furnace and crucible.

Do not fill a crucible to the top, for it will froth considerably before becoming tranquil. Start with no more than roughly ¼ the crucible capacity in volume. That would include the flux.

If you can find it, use anhydrous borax, or borax glass (identical aside from borax glass having been once melted). Neither of them froth up.

Allowing it to dry was a mistake. Silver chloride is not soluble in acids.

You may experience success by dissolving the silver chloride in ammonium hydroxide, then recovering the silver as silver chloride by introducing HCl. Be advised that the ammonium hydroxide solution, if allowed to dry, is very unstable and can explode. Given a choice, I'd opt for the furnace recovery.

Harold

Hello, I'm new to the site and appreciate the expertise here. I also had a small amount of silver chloride dry out. Can it be dehydrated?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Hello, I'm new to the site and appreciate the expertise here. I also had a small amount of silver chloride dry out. Can it be dehydrated?

No.
It can not.
It can be smelted as Harold say.

 

[4metals]

Can it be dehydrated?

I assume you meant re-hydrated. I would do
As GSP suggested and go with the caustic and karo. Melting, no matter how careful always results in a choking fume. Caustic and karo will be easier on the lungs.

 

[Yggdrasil]

I assume you meant re-hydrated. I would do
As GSP suggested and go with the caustic and karo. Melting, no matter how careful always results in a choking fume. Caustic and karo will be easier on the lungs.

Can one use the Lye sugar method on dry Silver chloride?

 

[adam mizer]

Can one use the Lye sugar method on dry Silver chloride?

You may have to sort of mortor/pestle to get it to powder up and or lots of stirring with stir bar and drill.
The water and Lye should penetrate into all the dried chloride.