Glucose Test Strips

[Anonymous]

You just can't compare the gold traced glucose strips to silver mylars, two different things. And saying I do something wrong when I get the same yields from different processes from glucose strips is somewhat entitled. When you didn't get the expected yield from golden glucose strips with glue, then you just didn't leach properly.

Strips and mylars have the same principle to them. Something is underneath that metal you're trying to recover, not unless the gold or silver is cooled some before adding to the test strips or mylars. The same principle applies. There is some kind of adhesive or something under the metal or it's cooled before (probably stamped on the mylar or test strips).

But my point is simply what I said, if you have any residue on the mylar or test strip, you did not get all the metal off. That's what I'm saying. My mylars and test strips are completely clear, or white. Nothing at all is on them. Crystal clean. Now, that way, you know for a definite fact you got 100% off your strips or mylars. Either one, it makes no difference. You have residue, you didn't get all of it. This is all coming from my own test experiments.

Kevin

 

[solar_plasma]

Complete nonsense: As I said, I have tried the route to remove the glue completely, then I dissolved the gold until the strips were absolutely white and clean and I didn't get a higher yield, than with glue or with incineration.

I have processed mylars and they are different from glucose strips. Silver ink contains binder material, the gold traces on glucose strips not. Also the glue on the strips is different from anything I ever saw on mylars.

You still didn't explain how you want to dissolve silver with AP.

 

[Anonymous]

Complete nonsense: As I said, I have tried the route to remove the glue completely, then I dissolved the gold until the strips were absolutely white and clean and I didn't get a higher yield, than with glue or with incineration.

Well, then that's all you're going to get. If you stripped the strips completely clean, then you've recovered all there is to get. I never disputed that. If your yields are the same even with incineration as with the AR, then you're getting all there is. Your incinerator must be built pretty good because I tried incineration before and I recovered 50% less than a wet refining.

I have processed mylars and they are different from glucose strips. Silver ink contains binder material, the gold traces on glucose strips not. Also the glue on the strips is different from anything I ever saw on mylars.

I said their principles are similar or the same. Binder or glue, there is something attaching silver to strips and mylars, just as there is the same principle attaching gold to the strips. That's all I am saying. There has to be some kind of bonding to make them stick like they do. If not, chances are if you bent the strips or mylars, the gold and silver would probably flake or peel right off. The glue on the strips I believe is some type of rubber glue. Not sure, but they do gel up the solution once they come off.

You still didn't explain how you want to dissolve silver with AP.

This is a good one. How could I explain it? I never said anything about using AP to dissolve silver. I don't even know if it can be done. Even if it could, I wouldn't try it. Maybe you misunderstood me on that one or I said something to make you think that I suggested using AP. I'm sorry if you misunderstood me.

How is your incinerator setup? Could you post a picture in the "Processes" forum somewhere? I would like to give the incineration another try.

Kevin

 

[FrugalRefiner]

You still didn't explain how you want to dissolve silver with AP.

This is a good one. How could I explain it? I never said anything about using AP to dissolve silver. I don't even know if it can be done. Even if it could, I wouldn't try it. Maybe you misunderstood me on that one or I said something to make you think that I suggested using AP. I'm sorry if you misunderstood me.

Earlier in this thread:

AR or AP would work in removing/dissolving the gold and (or) silver after this point.

Dave

 

[Anonymous]

You still didn't explain how you want to dissolve silver with AP.

This is a good one. How could I explain it? I never said anything about using AP to dissolve silver. I don't even know if it can be done. Even if it could, I wouldn't try it. Maybe you misunderstood me on that one or I said something to make you think that I suggested using AP. I'm sorry if you misunderstood me.

Earlier in this thread:

AR or AP would work in removing/dissolving the gold and (or) silver after this point.

Dave

Yep. My bad on that. I meant the AP/AR for the gold and Nitric for the silver. Sorry about that.

Kevin

 

[solar_plasma]

If you've got fine white ash, your incineration has been perfect. But it's so fine, that you need a lot of washing to get the gold out. Even a small test is a pain. That's why I do not recommend incineration as the first choice!

Don't know how many times I wrote this in this thread.

 

[jungle_Dave]

My child has diabetes for over a year now.
One thing I notice is how inaccurate these tests can be.
In general Accu chek is a bit more reliable depending on the model.
Bayer has a silver foil and is medium accurate, I think the better models have gold foils.
Something tells me that the better the conductivity the more accurate the test would be.
If you could choose one brand over another (there are too many to list here) which test strips would you pick for gold recovery?

 

[solar_plasma]

Are you sure the Bayer gray ones are silver? I tried to dissolve the metal layer in 4 M HNO3 in a short test, maybe 10 min and nothing happened.

I did not test them later anymore, because I don't know where I have put them. I hoped, they were palladium. :lol:

I think until now we only have accurate yield data for akku chek.

 

[Anonymous]

Are you sure the Bayer gray ones are silver? I tried to dissolve the metal layer in 4 M HNO3 in a short test, maybe 10 min and nothing happened.

I did not test them later anymore, because I don't know where I have put them. I hoped, they were palladium. :lol:

I think until now we only have accurate yield data for akku chek.

As for them being Palladium, I'm not sure. I need to check to be sure it's either palladium or silver.

When I first tested a few of them, I placed them in diluted NH03 and after I placed a copper rod in the beaker, it started collecting grey instantly. I never took out the powder to wash because it such a small amount, I wanted to do more of them to be enough to dry and melt. If it is palladium, then it shouldn't melt into a metal when I try to melt it, because I only use mapp and propane gas, which isn't hot enough to melt it properly.

Since I never refined for palladium before, I'm gong to have to go through the threads and search some more info to show me how to test for palladium. I do have some DMG which I never used before, but I think I read that it would drop palladium out of solution?

But, other than doing the NH03 stripping of the test strips, I can't tell if it's silver or palladium, but I can tell you this much, the powder is grey. It does look like palladium powder now that I remember what it looks like. I hope those strips are palladium. I have nearly 2 lbs of them.

I also forgot to post my weight yields of them. I'll post the info in my next post. Since I haven't refined them all yet, I don't know the yields just now, but I'll post them too once I get them.

Kevin

[UPDATE] Would a stannous test tell if the solution has palladium in it?

 

[butcher]

The stannous test will give a reaction with palladium, but the DMG will give the best results in a test for Pd.

I think you are talking about nitric acid HNO3 in the above post, NHO3 almost looks like an ammonium compound or oxide, something that I have not heard of.

 

[Anonymous]

The stannous test will give a reaction with palladium, but the DMG will give the best results in a test for Pd.

I think you are talking about nitric acid HNO3 in the above post, NHO3 almost looks like an ammonium compound or oxide, something that I have not heard of.

Thanks for the info. I did take a small amount of strips before and when I used the HNO3 to dissolve the material, I added a few grains of salt and the solution started getting a white milky color to it and it settled on the bottom of the vial.

Is non iodized salt or using copper the only ways to know if silver is in a solution, mainly HNO3?


Kevin

[ADDED INFO] With my waste solution of AR, would the DMG work to test for palladium?

[CORRECTION IN FORMULA] Changed NHO3 toHNO3. Thanks for the correction butcher. I did mean HNO3, but I didn't spell it that way.

 

[jungle_Dave]

Could well be palladium,
Im saving them up, 4 tests + per day adds up over time.
I imagine your referring to accu chek avivia ( the ones I don't get for free from the state )

We are still getting the accu chek active which has been discontinued in the 1st world.
No foils, but the chip is the same as a sim card.

Im pretty sure that the strips with the most stable results will have the highest PM content.
Those PCB's and connectors look promising too. I remember a specialist telling me that the device sells for well under fabrication cost as you will have to buy the expensive strips specifically for that device.

 

[butcher]

Kevin,
It does sound like you used nitric acid HNO3 to dissolve silver, and then added sodium chloride to form a precipitant of silver chloride.

Kevin,
Nitric acid is HNO3, not NHO3, O3NH, NO3H, or some other combination of hydrogen nitrogen and oxygen.
When you jumble the letters around in the chemical formula, it makes it confusing as to what chemical your using.

 

[Anonymous]

Kevin,
It does sound like you used nitric acid HNO3 to dissolve silver, and then added sodium chloride to form a precipitant of silver chloride.

Kevin,
Nitric acid is HNO3, not NHO3, O3NH, NO3H, or some other combination of hydrogen nitrogen and oxygen.
When you jumble the letters around in the chemical formula, it makes it confusing as to what chemical your using.

Thanks for noticing the mistake I made. I did go back and fix it. I don't want to put anyone in harms way. Sorry.

Kevin

 

[g_axelsson]

It's easy to spot palladium in nitric solution if there isn't any copper or other colorful salts in it. The palladium would color the solution yellow - red - brown if there were some. If the solution is colorless then there is no palladium in it. Silver nitrate by it self is colorless.

Göran

 

[kurtak]

It's easy to spot palladium in nitric solution if there isn't any copper or other colorful salts in it. The palladium would color the solution yellow - red - brown if there were some. If the solution is colorless then there is no palladium in it. Silver nitrate by it self is colorless.

Göran

Correct - & if its silver plated on copper it will be blue - drop of HCL to confirm Ag --- if its Pd plated on copper it will be green or at least a greenish tint to the blue - stannous test &/or DMG to confirm

If its tin plated on copper you will get the normal white tin paste (stannic acid) precipitate

Kurt

 

[kurtak]

Keven

DMG is the best test for Pd - it needs to be prepared (dissolved) first - it does not dissolve easily though - you can do it per the instructions in Hokes of boiling it in water but it takes a lot of boiling to get it to dissolve - adding a little NaOH will make it much easier to dissolve - I will post the actual ratio (water/NaOH/DMG) later (its in my lab notes out in the lab) when prepared this way the NaOH will cause a hydroxide precipitate of other metals when it is first added but this dissolves quickly leaving the fluffy canary yellow precipitate of Pd - the one problem here is if the solution is to dilute the hydroxides of other metals may take some time &/or heat to re-dissolve to then expose the yellow Pd precipitate - so its better used in strong acidic solutions

The other method of preparing DMG is to dissolve it with methanol or ethanol (the easiest way to dissolve DMG) - but DO NOT use DMG prepared this way to precipitate Pd from a silver nitrate solution - it will also precipitate silver fulminate which is a VERY pressure sensitive explosive - more sensitive then mercury fulminate - if enough silver fulminate is precipitated it can self detonate under its own weight & wet --- if prepared this way it should ONLY be used to test (a drop in a ml) of a silver nitrate solution you are testing for Pd

With a Stannous test Pd will "first" appear red/orange in color & then shift to a green - emerald green to even almost black green depending on concentration - if you get a light green stannous test - then you want to test with DMG to confirm the stannous test is in fact Pd as other metals will also produce a light (lime) green stannous test

Kurt

 

[Anonymous]

Below is a scan of the Bayer Contour test strips I have. Although I haven't put them in solution yet, below are the weight yields.

100 test strips with both sides = 10g
100 test strips without blank side = 5.6g

(approximate weight + count)
158g = 1,580 strips
194g = 1,940 strips



I'll post the yields once I process and melt the silver. According to my earlier notes and earlier tests, they are silver.

Kevin

 

[solar_plasma]

Found something new: The adhesive layer of accu chek could be a pressure sensitive silicone adhesive, which is often used for such applications. This would match to my observations:

http://cool.conservation-us.org/coolaic/jaic/articles/jaic22-02-007.html

Concentrated HCl degrades it and what is left can be washed away with water, they say. This would be an explanation, why both AR and HCl/chlorox do not mind the glue when dissolving the gold. Next time I do a batch (collected nearly 3000 again) I will let the solution do its work for a long time and see, what will happen to the glue after a week or two, before I decant and filter off.

 

[Bluebloomer]

So what is the final verdict on the gold glucose strips ?

AP, AR, HCL-CL, Acetone, or Alchohol to remove the gold ?

And a while back I read about sodium hydroxide to soak off the silver from keyboard mylars, did anybody try that on these glucose strips ?