Hello, first post and question.

[Hischild71]

Hi there, I'm Mike from north Florida, I got interested in home refining by watching YouTube videos by Sreetips and others.

I use acid peroxide to remove gold foils from circut boards from tvs, cell phones or where I can get them.

That brings me to my question: my a/p solution has become very dark green, and from. What I've watched from YouTube, it needs to be "cleaned" to extend the life.
So I watched a few videos about what to do.
Apparently it has become saturated with copper and therefore needs to be cemented out.
Moosescrapper and a few others suggest using steel or stainless steel to cement the copper out.
So I have tried a stainless steel butter knife and 2 different pieces of plain steel with NO results except for turning black. I've left them in the jar for hours and even days with no copper on them.
So what am I doing wrong, why won't the copper cement out?
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks, Mike

 

[Yggdrasil]

Add a bit of HCl and bubble air through it. It should rejuvenate it.

If it gets over saturated you will get Copper Chloride forming as a white powder in the solution.
You could filter that out if you want, but any small bits of loose gold foil will also be there.
Better add HCl and bubble air.
Aquarium air pumps are preferred for this.
Regards Per-Ove

 

[Hischild71]

Add a bit of HCl and bubble air through it. It should rejuvenate it.

If it gets over saturated you will get Copper Chloride forming as a white powder in the solution.
You could filter that out if you want, but any small bits of loose gold foil will also be there.
Better add HCl and bubble air.
Aquarium air pumps are preferred for this.
Regards Per-Ove

Thank you, I'll try that and keep an eye out for the copper chloride.

 

[war_child]

Hello Mike from north Florida. I am Mike from south Michigan. I am new here, and I am NOT in a position to offer much chemistry advise, but after reading your old post, I recommend you read a post by FrugalRefiner. It's titled "When in Doubt, Cement It Out". It also includes information from another well-respected member named 4metals. I actually see it below, currently under "similar threads"

In short, you probably don't want to put iron to your saturated AP solution, yet. Alot of refiners will add pure copper pieces to their AP solution first, with the aid of an aquarium bubbler. This will cause any silver, gold, platinum and palladium (and any mercury) that is in the AP to cement out of solution, onto the copper pieces. The fine powder, or sludge, is saved for later refinement and the acid gets treated further. Thats where the iron comes in. I don't know if stainless is recommended, I've heard bare, mild steel/ pig iron works best. When the iron gets put into solution, it will force the other, less reactive base metals including copper, out of solution. Then the Ph of the solution can be lowered. The iron will precipitate out to the bottom. Then, I believe, the liquid is safe for disposal and can usually be poured down the drain.

Like I said though, I am not an expert at any of this, and you should well research any projects or experiments before you begin. If I am wrong about any of this, or I have forgotten anything important, hopefully some of the more experienced members will correct me.

Good Luck!
mike

 

[Yggdrasil]

In short, you probably don't want to put iron to your saturated AP solution, yet.

Sorry missed that part, but if it has been only AP with bubbler no PMs are expected.
And I'm not entirely sure Stainless Steel are good for cementing copper.
It has high Chromium and Nickel content.
To cement Copper use mild steel or plain iron.
But only after you are not using the solution anymore.
AP solution can be reused "forever" so no need to destroy it, unless you are quitting refining all together.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Apparently it has become saturated with copper and therefore needs to be cemented out.
Moosescrapper and a few others suggest using steel or stainless steel to cement the copper out.

No need to cement out the copper.
Add a bit more HCl and bubble air through it with an aquarium bubbler.

 

[Martijn]

Hello Mike from north Florida. I am Mike from south Michigan. I am new here, and I am NOT in a position to offer much chemistry advise, but after reading your old post, I recommend you read a post by FrugalRefiner. It's titled "When in Doubt, Cement It Out". It also includes information from another well-respected member named 4metals. I actually see it below, currently under "similar threads"

In short, you probably don't want to put iron to your saturated AP solution, yet. Alot of refiners will add pure copper pieces to their AP solution first, with the aid of an aquarium bubbler. This will cause any silver, gold, platinum and palladium (and any mercury) that is in the AP to cement out of solution, onto the copper pieces. The fine powder, or sludge, is saved for later refinement and the acid gets treated further. Thats where the iron comes in. I don't know if stainless is recommended, I've heard bare, mild steel/ pig iron works best. When the iron gets put into solution, it will force the other, less reactive base metals including copper, out of solution. Then the Ph of the solution can be lowered. The iron will precipitate out to the bottom. Then, I believe, the liquid is safe for disposal and can usually be poured down the drain.

Like I said though, I am not an expert at any of this, and you should well research any projects or experiments before you begin. If I am wrong about any of this, or I have forgotten anything important, hopefully some of the more experienced members will correct me.

Good Luck!
mike

The 'when doubt cement it out' only applies to solutions in which you have precious metals dissolved.

AP is never waste unless you have too much or you're quitting.

After cementing on iron you have raise pH to form hydroxides and filter those out. And then it can go down the drain.
Study 'dealing with waste' for that. That is the old thread, not the newer one.

Martijn.

 

[Elemental]

While it doesn't pertain to your AP now, it may in the future. Below is a link for "Dealing with Waste" that we direct a lot of people too.

https://goldrefiningforum.com/threads/dealing-with-waste.10539/