ferric chloride help

[dactylicxx]

Hi I'm new here and I have been playing with ferric chloride as I have some for making circuit boards but I put some in with gold plated pins from old computers and I managed to get a small amount of gold flakes. So i tryed it again a week later with more pins but this time there is like a salt at the bottom mixed with the gold flakes. Is there a way to separate from the gold without nitric acid as I cannot get it where I live?

 

[Barren Realms 007]

ave you tried boiling in water to remove the salts?

 

[tek4g63]

Sounds like copper salts to me. When you have the salts and gold foils in the filter try pouring some fresh hydrochloric acid over it. If it is copper salts it will start to dissolve and the hydrochloric acid coming out of the filter will be green.

I hope this helps.

 

[dactylicxx]

i also forgot to say that the "salt" or "mud" appeared right after i dulited the ferric with tap water before i put it through a filter. but before i put the water in i could see the gold flakes when i stirred it.

 

[Geo]

what color is this mud? red,brown,white? more information is needed.

try this. in a clean container place a small sample of the mud/gold flakes. add a little fresh hcl. if the mud stays the same, proceed with hcl/Cl and then filter the yellow solution from the mud.

 

[dactylicxx]

It seams to be orangeish red....brownish.....and small amount of very fine white. If I let it sit for a bit it looks like salt

 

[dactylicxx]

OK so i put more ferric in with it and it seemed to clean it up a bit. When I filter it I'm getting red sand or flakes mixed with the gold. What should I do to desolve or delegate from the gold?

 

[Geo]

did you try what i suggested? put the mud in fresh hcl and heat to a boil. do a hard boil for a few minutes.decant the solution and rinse with water.add more fresh hcl and boil, if the solution darkens or changes color, rinse and repeat until the color doesnt change.i suspect the red is iron from the ferric chloride.after the wash and rinses you should be able to dissolve the gold without too much contamination.

 

[dactylicxx]

hi i have not been at home for a bit to try boiling it but i will try that. i have a pic of 2 boards i want to remove the gold off of. just need to remove the green mask.