Gold plated aluminum

[Dr. Poe]

You fellas are all correct. It's the formation of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) also called 'Sapphire that protects or 'anodizes aluminum in a stripping cell with an oxidizing acid. Dr. Poe :|

 

[Photobacterium]

If this is gold on aluminum I expect this to be the 1 of 100 times where H2SO4 cell is a bad choice.

Is aluminum even compatable with any type of gold plating?

i have used gold plated aluminum often in the microwave instrumentation industry.

but the aluminum wasn't gold-plated directly. our drawing call-outs were typically 50 micro-inches of gold OVER copper - over aluminum.

 

[nōnāgintā trēs]

If it's really gold platted Al, and not just yellow Al, then throw it in some NaOH and dissolve the Al. The gold will be untouched!!

 

[goldsilverpro]

Use the sulfuric stripper

 

[Ayham Hafez]

I Know this is an old thread, but just to add my experience.

I have done many gold extraction from gold plated aluminum that come from telecom equipment,the best way to get gold from it is by using very dilute nitric acid , I add 1 part of concentrated nitric to 10 parts of water, within few hours we can get the gold foils and in same time we will get the clean aluminum ready for sale

 

[4metals]

Cyanide strip is also effective, electrolytic recovery.

 

[nickvc]

If members have access to lye that will dissolve the aluminum just make sure it’s kept away from naked flames and the gas is vented off outside.

 

[Ayham Hafez]

If members have access to lye that will dissolve the aluminum just make sure it’s kept away from naked flames and the gas is vented off outside.

Why to dissolve Aluminum while you can get the gold foils plus extra value from Aluminum, and using LYE is such a nightmare specially with filtration even if there is no acid in solution.

 

[Thomas M Joseph]

I Know this is an old thread, but just to add my experience.

I have done many gold extraction from gold plated aluminum that come from telecom equipment,the best way to get gold from it is by using very dilute nitric acid , I add 1 part of concentrated nitric to 10 parts of water, within few hours we can get the gold foils and in same time we will get the clean aluminum ready for sale

This works very well. The only issue for me was having to expose some aluminum on the items to get the reaction started. Had a reasonable amount of rf connectors that were gold on aluminum and dilute nitric acid as 1.5 molar solution worked very well. Intact foils were easy to collect as well as the aluminum base metal cores.