hcl and bleach

[h hutch1945]

need some help guys, had a beautiful gold color on my hcl and bleach diluted it with distilled water was going to heat it up to get the chloride out instead of turning it off I turned it up some, and needless to say the only thing left was a brown sediment burned on the sides and bottom of the pot. anything I can do or should I just throw it away. thanks

 

[FrugalRefiner]

You can send it to me. I'll recover it for you for 50%. :lol:

Seriously, you can find the answer in Hoke's book. Page 55, (5) Evaporating Off the Excess Nitric Acid:

Sometimes this evaporation may go too far, and brown metallic gold will bake out onto the dish. You can easily dissolve this baked out gold (without adding any nitric acid) in this way: cover it with a few drops of full-strength hydrochloric acid, then slowly add a few drops--not more--of a solution of sodium chlorate in warm water. A very small amount of this sodium chlorate solution will do the work; add it a drop at a time, tilting the dish to wash the dissolved gold into the syrup. Stir well, as this mixture of chlorate and hydrochloric acid can form an explosive gas, especially when cold, but if your dish is warm, and your chlorate solution is warm, and if you work slowly, little if any of the explosive gas will collect.

If you haven't read her book yet, you can download a printer friendly version from the link in my signature line below.

Dave

 

[h hutch1945]

thanks for the help, I don't have any of the sodium chlorate, I will have to order some. thanks again for the help

 

[butcher]

If I am understanding your question, it sounds like you scorched the gold to the pot, you may have lost a little gold to the fumes, you can add some HCl a splash of sodium hypochlorite (bleach), use as little as you can to redissolve the gold back into solution, you may need to brush the sides of your vessel with the liquid, a clean old tooth brush can be used.

 

[h hutch1945]

thanks to both you guys response, I will try the hcl and bleach, I will let you know what happens, this was the most gold looking solution I have ever had and could not wait to drop the gold and this happened, sure messed up my day, I looked for the cat to kick but he hid from me, just kidding, thanks

 

[Claudie]

Be cautious of the fumes created by adding bleach to HCL. They are very dangerous.