Need help on some Fixer

[jeneje]

Hello all, I have a gallon of photo fixer that is saturated with silver. The last time i done this i messed up. Doing my research here i found that using lye will drop out the silver, is this correct and how do i know when it is complete.
Thanks
Ken

 

[publius]

Fixer is a thiosulfate compound. You should be able to strip it of values (silver) with steel wool. Cement it out with the steel wool then after filtering it out, wash in water and then in HCl. This way it is almost 99.99%.

 

[jeneje]

Fixer is a thiosulfate compound. You should be able to strip it of values (silver) with steel wool. Cement it out with the steel wool then after filtering it out, wash in water and then in HCl. This way it is almost 99.99%.

Thanks Publius,
What color will the powder be when cemented out. Guessing here but (black)
Ken

 

[publius]

Gray. The same as when Lasersteve's video turning silverchloride to metallic silver using the NaHO and Kero syrup.

 

[jeneje]

Gray. The same as when Lasersteve's video turning silverchloride to metallic silver using the NaHO and Kero syrup.

ok publius thanks very much.
Ken

 

[samuel-a]

Both methods will work, each with it's own pro's and con's.
Cementing with steel wool:
P' - Produce elemental silver which is 'easy' to wash.
C' - Slow and requires an after treatment such as HCl or dilute sulfuric washes (In spite the fact that Fe and Ag are immiscible, iron inclusions in the melt is all too real).

NaOH:
P' - Fast, drops all the silver at once as Ag2O, no need to wash, just dry and melt.
C' - Handling a voluminous precipitate.

This is of course oversimplified, but you can find the entire procedures here on the forum.
I suggest you try both ways first with small samples of your main batch.

 

[jeneje]

Both methods will work, each with it's own pro's and con's.
Cementing with steel wool:
P' - Produce elemental silver which is 'easy' to wash.
C' - Slow and requires an after treatment such as HCl or dilute sulfuric washes (In spite the fact that Fe and Ag are immiscible, iron inclusions in the melt is all too real).

NaOH:
P' - Fast, drops all the silver at once as Ag2O, no need to wash, just dry and melt.
C' - Handling a voluminous precipitate.

This is of course oversimplified, but you can find the entire procedures here on the forum.
I suggest you try both ways first with small samples of your main batch.

Thanks samuel, i will try both, need the experince and it a great learning adventure.
Ken