Glucose Test Strips

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Nice research Björn, it's probably not worth the hassle to reduce the amount of ash any further. 8)

You should test some ash in a flame to see if you get the nice green barium flame. Take some with you next time you have a camp fire, always amazes people to see colored fire.

Göran
 
It depends on how fast the BaSO4 will react to BaCO3. If it works fast, than I could imagine to pass conc. hot NaCO3 solution by vacuum filtering through BaSO4 in a büchner funnel. Then changing to acid until nothing dissolves anymore and if there is BaSO4 left (and there will, because of the equilibrium), then start with NaCO3 again. Only gold should be left back in the filter...if not the gold is too fine.
 
edsikes said:
spaceships said:
edsikes said:
Gold strips aren't "old" they are currently the most reliable on the market the electrostatic inks have a much higher error rate than gold test strips. I know this might sound a little eccentric and narcissistic, but I'm Pretty sure I'm the closest thing to an expert on blood glucose test strips that there is on this forum.

Wow- - just wow.


wow what?

does anyone else here work for a thin film deposition company that manufactures diabetic test strips? because i havent seen them post on this thread.

True, but then again the information I had to hand didn't include your occupation so your post read badly. Thanks for filling me in though, I now know where to come to if I need diabetic test strips or feel the need to collect them to refine.
 
solar_plasma said:
Estimating 1cm² plated areal per strip...

solar_plasma said:
Now I used Gimp to enlarge the picture of a strip in order to get a more precise number on the areal: 1.6 cm² (x 2400 => 1,4 g gold)

I have recently taken to the precious metal recovery hobby. After learning that these test strips contain gold, I always feel sad at the thought that my sister has been throwing them out for the past 15 years. Meh.

Anyway, I scanned one of the strips she currently uses (Accu-Chek Performa) and wrote a little script to count the number of "gold pixels". I calculated them to have a gold area of 1.0314 cm². Just my two cents for now. Have only 250 strips saved up at the moment.

Regards,
Shedhead
 
Shedhead said:
solar_plasma said:
Estimating 1cm² plated areal per strip...

solar_plasma said:
Now I used Gimp to enlarge the picture of a strip in order to get a more precise number on the areal: 1.6 cm² (x 2400 => 1,4 g gold)

I have recently taken to the precious metal recovery hobby. After learning that these test strips contain gold, I always feel sad at the thought that my sister has been throwing them out for the past 15 years. Meh.

Anyway, I scanned one of the strips she currently uses (Accu-Chek Performa) and wrote a little script to count the number of "gold pixels". I calculated them to have a gold area of 1.0314 cm². Just my two cents for now. Have only 250 strips saved up at the moment.

Regards,
Shedhead


Thank you! Very valuable info! This was exactly, what I wished to do, but I could not find any software capable of this. Great job!

Maybe if we would post scans of all kinds of teststrips, you could use your script to count the gold pixels?
 
How about this one (accu chek aviva):
 

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solar_plasma said:
Maybe if we would post scans of all kinds of teststrips, you could use your script to count the gold pixels?

I would be happy to contribute to the thread! I just need to know the resolution with which you scanned, solar_plasma. The resolution of your scan isn't included in the file's EXIF data so I can't get the actual area. For example, I scanned mine at 2400 ppi. This resolution isn't strictly necessary though.

Also, I attached the scan of the Accu-Chek Performa strip for comparison.


Regards,
Shedhead
 

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I can only tell I used my EOS 600D at 18Mp or 5184x3456, cut, but did not scale it down.

The strip itself is 9,00mm x 38,00mm

It should work with gimp, too, by indexing colors, select by color, histogram...but it doesn't show the number of pixels, like it should do as they have shown in a gimp forum.
 
solar_plasma said:
The strip itself is 9,00mm x 38,00mm

Alright, I've run the numbers. For the Accu-Chek Aviva, with the dimensions you've given me, I calculated a gold area of 1.3413 cm².

Regards,
Shedhead
 
solar_plasma said:
It should work with gimp, too, by indexing colors, select by color, histogram...but it doesn't show the number of pixels, like it should do as they have shown in a gimp forum.

Oh, I just pulled up the histogram window now and sure enough, it shows the pixel count... And it's pretty much what my script spits out. Well, at least the script took only 2 minutes to write, so no biggie. I'm just a casual GIMP user.

Regards,
Shedhead
 
Thank you!!! Then my yields are quite fine. That's calculated ~1,17g/2400pieces and actually I get ~1g/2400pieces. 0,17g loss might be pretty much the same when doing bigger batches, so I expect 2,17g from the next 4800 pieces batch. Just need to strip the last 200 pieces and we will see if this ist correct..
 
8508 strips collected so far:
5666 pieces with removed tape.
2842 pieces without removed tape.
Expected yield minimum 3.5g (calculated theoritical maximum content 4.15g)

But removing the tape is annoying. So I research other possibilities again. Since there is used BaSO4 as a filler, I try to let cold Na2CO3 solution do its work without removing the tape. The equilibrium reaction might destroy enough of the structure to let the whole thing fall apart after some weeks. We will see.
 
Hello everyone, i know this is older thread but maybe someone will still answer, i took to precious metals recovery around 3 years ago, but unfortunately in my area there isn't a lot of free easy electronics to get maybe like a printer here and there and you have to be fast. Lately i talked my friend to put aside used glucose testing strips for me if i'm correct they are Accu Check Performa and it seems they are quite silvery ones, i read on some other threads that they started making them with Pd but someone else claimed that it might be silver, so i'd like to consult this with you here. Also any ideas how to get more of those i don't have a lot of friends with diabetes(actually glad they are healthy) ? I'm from Poland (Europe) trying my best at recovery i even started recovering zinc from batteries cause i was borred with no gold/silved etc to recover XD.
 
Obviously some test strips not only have BaSO4 but also ZnS as a filler. So watch out and be careful! Most safe it is still not to treat the incinnerated material but to pull the tape off by hand.
 
Max, you can heat the gold strips with a propanne torch or even a cigarette lighter to shrivel them. this will release the glue in seconds rather than hours. The key, as Jack has noted is to accumulate as much as possible and do your preliminary processing as you can. Just put all of it aside until you can get the acids you need. PM me if you have any questions or problems with your process. Mike
What's the best process of taking off the glue from the test strips I boiled them and peel the back and I got the glue but the glue is stuck on the gold weird
 
Hi, Could you please guide me how can I extract gold from glucose test strips at home?
Thanks.
Welcome to us.

If you are going to process anything you first need to study some.

Start with Hokes book and safety.

It is in these links:
We ask our new members to do 3 things.
1. Read C.M. Hokes book on refining jewelers scrap, it gives an easy introduction to the most important chemistry regarding refining.
It is free here on the forum: Screen Readable Copy of Hoke's Book
2. Then read the safety section of the forum: Safety
3. And then read about "Dealing with waste" in the forum: Dealing with Waste

Suggested reading: The Library

https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/gold-refining-forum-rules.31182/
 
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