Home made SnCl2, the right way ?

[Bluebloomer]

Hi all, I am making some SnCl2 and was hoping you guys could confirm I'm doing it the right way, with the materials I have. Since SnCl 2 is pretty expensive, around 50 usd for 250 grams) I decided to try and make it myself with some solder I have that contains 38% Pb. This is what I did:

- Cut the solder in little pieces and added it to a glass bowl with HCL.
- With 2 tealight candles I brought 33% HCL with the tin pieces to a boil and left it there for 4 hours.
- When it cooled down I saw a lot of crystals with black muck floating round. This has to be the Pb..?
- Filtered it with a coffee filter, and hung the filter to dry. The clear HCL liquid was set aside.
- Crushed the dried crystals and dissolved them in the same HCL liquid I boiled the solder in previously and filtered again.
- All crystals dissolved nicely and only the black Pb was left in the coffee filter.
- Added 50% Demi water to the remaining liquid.
- Took some paperclips and a lab powersupply, a large glass bown and let the crystals grow.
- The voltage was around 2-3 V with 3 Amps, that slowly went back to 1,5 Amps and the voltage gone up to around 9 V.
- After the reaction was done, the amperage went down. Filtered the crystals again and hung it to dry in a 30 degree celius enviroment.
- Crystals are now a bright white and free of lead or other contaminents,

Tried the same process with a piece of Sn/Pb from an old vintage pot, but that doesn't seem to work at all.. Maybe the pieces were too big to dissolve..

The Solder dissolved pretty quick and clean despite the horrible smell and nasty vapour.
What do you guys think, is this the way to produce clean Sn crystals aka SNCL2 or could I shorten the process ? Or am I making something else but stannous chloride ?

 

[solar_plasma]

The clear liquid contains the SnCl2. That's your test solution.

The black filtrate contains insoluble metals like copper.

The white crystals are PbCl2, which is soluble in hot water,but much less soluble in the cold.

 

[Bluebloomer]

Hi Solar, thanks.

I think I explained myself all wrong. So perhaps this will clarify it:

I dissolved some solder that contained cu and pb in hot hcl. When it cooled down I got a lot of white crystals.
The solution was filtered and the crystals dried. They where set aside.

The solution is undergoing an electrolite proces to create metallic tin, this is correct right ?
I thought I could use the metallic tin to create stannous chloride, so the tin is 99% pure and clean.

But I think I went at it all wrongl, the metallic tin is not what I need to make SnCl2, or is it ? I'm realy confused. I thought I was refining the tin so I had a pure metallic tin to work with to make SnCl2.

So what I would like to know is, is the metallic tin useless for making SnCl2, is the entire "refining" process useless or am I on the right track ?

 

[solar_plasma]

The clear liquid contains the SnCl2. That's your test solution.

!!!

Stop making thinks complicated!

 

[Bluebloomer]

I Understand I made the testing solution. But what I'm trying to say is that I have way more than I need, and within 3-5 weeks this liquid goes useless right ?

Also I read mixed messages about the Cu and Pb contaminants that might influence the test results. That gave me the idea to "refine" the tin.
Useless action, but it was fun to see how the Sn was growing.

So, although the solder has Cu and Pb once it's boiled and dissolved in HCL and filtered the SnCl2 is ready to use for the next 3-5 weeks.

Oke, understood won't forget or argue there. But what of the metallic tin I produced ? Should I just dry it, and repeat the boiling process once I need more, or is the metallic tin useless to make SnCl2 with ?

Dissolved in water it turns the water grey, so could you please explain what I should do with the metallic Sn that has formed ? Discard it and only use the HCL boiling process with clean Sn material, or is the metallic Sn still usefull in making stannous chloride ?

 

[butcher]

Bluebloomer,

You could do what your trying to do here, if you had a better understanding of the reactions and how the metals react, from reading your post it does not sound like you have that understanding of the reactions yet...

I suggest forgetting about going further with this experiment, and treating it properly for waste.

Find yourself some 95% tin solder, to make a small amount of stannous chloride with as you need it.

Do not add water to your stannous chloride as it hydrolyzes into a tin hydroxide which will not work as a test for gold.

Working with a more pure metal, will give you a better understanding of how, that metal reacts in solution, this will be very helpful when you begin working with many metals in solution, this is why I suggest beginners learn with memory fingers when they begin to learn to recover and refine gold from electronic scrap, they will be working with less metals in solutions and can get a better understanding of how copper or gold reacts in solution without other metals...

 

[Bluebloomer]

Butchter, thanks for the input.

So I should use the stannous chloride I have left over, as the testing solution , or should i I discard aswel since it's from Sn60 PB39 Cu1 solder ?

I am just trying to understand what I wrong and why. I have a very creative mind and although I do not understand the chemistry in scientific terms, I am trying to understand what is happening and why.
The liquid is discarded, I have 1 dropper bottle with 33% HCL with stannous chloride from the solder, if you say it's no good because of the bad starting material I will discard it too.

Could you please tell me, why it is no good to try and smelt the metallic tin and use it as a new starting material to make new SnCl2 ? By understanding why I can see the bigger picture of what I was trying to do, and what I was actually doing.

 

[solar_plasma]

One answer leads to the next question. This is, where you are wrong. And forget the creative mind until you have some experience! Creativity will only make problems right now.

If you are that much interested in the process, then come back after you've read 200 pages about tin. Thereafter, the left over questions, will be quite interesting for everyone, to read, to think about, to answer.

 

[MarcoP]

Instead of just discharging all the solution you have made, when it's time to, you should learn how to discharge it properly.
In your case you'll only have Tin but still a good exercise, http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=21101#p217432 one little missing note from that great post is that you need to raise the PH to 2.5 before adding scrap iron, as suggested in many other posts (thus I have no idea why, yet).
Still reading Hoke and forums posts to at least understand the basic principles behind PMs recovery must be done.

I guess your mistake is in your doing without any knowledge.