I am sure this has been covered. Looked through some old posts. Thought someone used copper sulfate in a cell? Have some scraps of melts and various silver containing sands. Some gold is in it also. And magnetite. Have basic household chemicals. Lye, copper sulphate, sulfuric acid, Hydrochloric acid, potassium nitrate and a few others. Can any of these work as an electrolyte? Not trying to get .999. Just trying to get it out of the junk. Thank you.
Electolyte for silver electrowinning cell
- Thread starter Fettigconstruction1@gmail
- Start date
Help Support Gold Refining Forum:
Also. There is little to no copper present in these scraps.
Naughtius Maximus
Member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2023
- Messages
- 16
I'm a noob here but maybe acid washes might be better than electrolysis. HCl --> H2SO4 --> HNO3. I have seen a video where a guy used time rather than heat outside for the nitric. Seemed to work well.
Silver does not get dissolved in Hcl. Not sure why I listed it unless someone knows a trick I don't. Don't have nitric so was hoping someone knew of a combination. Can make nitric with sulfuric and kno3 but everyone boils it..
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2021
- Messages
- 1,377
Hard to beat Nitric off the shelf. It is so easy to get here in the states. I had copious quantities of Nitric before I got any of my other chems. I found nitric is easier to get than any other chems, with the exception of HCl.
May have to try and get some. Have about 10 Oz to get out of my cons and old melts..and more in the future.
If you are mainly looking to remove the silver from your cons then warm concentrated acid should do the trick but be aware that sulphuric is nasty and note so when heated, if you go that route then the gold will not be removed but once rinsed then you could use poormans AR to dissolve that.
All these processes are detailed here on the forum so do some research and see if you feel you can do these processes .
All these processes are detailed here on the forum so do some research and see if you feel you can do these processes .
CTR Graduaciones
New member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2024
- Messages
- 1
talking about electrolyte, i have a question, i want to try making some for a silver cell... but i was wondering, instead using 999+ or silver shot, can i use silver cement direct from the copper method? i know that, being silver dust, it would be a dangerous reaction if i pour the nitric too fast... maybe pouring some water first mixed with the cemented silver and adding nitric little by little.... what would you think?
Welcome to us.
It is considered beneficial to have some Copper in the electrolyte.
As such I assume it will be ok to use cemented Silver.
You are correct that the finely divided cement Silver will react quicker than shot but going slow with the nitric (I prefer 2 parts distilled water to 1 part nitric) and start out cold it will be a manageable reaction. And the copper in the cement silver (providing it isn't too much) will be beneficial for the operation of the cell. Typically cement Silver is 98-99% Silver and the rest Copper. Increase the heat slowly.
A good rule to follow in refining, only fill the vessel you are using for the reaction half way to allow for the rise.
