Topher_osAUrus
Well-known member
Oh yah, itll work. The HCl just has to eat away the chromium layer first, and some some stainless that doesnt take long at all.
Need help
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Grelko
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Topher_osAUrus said:
Make sure not to use galvanized or you'll contaminate the copper with zinc. (If you're trying to reclaim the copper)
Try an experiment on a small sample of the pieces shown in the photo's. In a beaker cover the pieces with household ammonia solution (unscented) This will dissolve any silver chloride you have generated. Then filter the solution and add Hydrochloric acid to the filtered liquid.
The silver will drop out as silver chloride and you can collect it by filtering. This process will likely clean up what you have already started processing. The parts should be free of chlorides and should be processed in nitric as if they were not processed yet at all.
You can search for methods to convert the silver chloride you generate on the filter paper back to silver metals here on the forum. If the parts had solder on them when you started it is possible you have introduced lead into the mix and the lead will also be traveling with the silver. By boiling the silver chloride you have collected and filtered out in hot water, the lead chloride will dissolve while the silver chloride will remain. (mostly)
If you have satisfactory results on your small sample, try stronger ammonia (ammonium hydroxide) and distilled water to process larger lots.
Hopefully this will get you back to where you started with no losses.
The silver will drop out as silver chloride and you can collect it by filtering. This process will likely clean up what you have already started processing. The parts should be free of chlorides and should be processed in nitric as if they were not processed yet at all.
You can search for methods to convert the silver chloride you generate on the filter paper back to silver metals here on the forum. If the parts had solder on them when you started it is possible you have introduced lead into the mix and the lead will also be traveling with the silver. By boiling the silver chloride you have collected and filtered out in hot water, the lead chloride will dissolve while the silver chloride will remain. (mostly)
If you have satisfactory results on your small sample, try stronger ammonia (ammonium hydroxide) and distilled water to process larger lots.
Hopefully this will get you back to where you started with no losses.
Are all the contact points as yellow as the picture suggests? It looks almost like molybdenum.
Usually we use copper for cementing silver from solution, that way we don't get so much copper into our silver.
Forget anything you have seen on youtube unless it is made from one of the members on the forum.
Here is a collection with some pointers to good youtube videos.
http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/YouTube
Göran
Usually we use copper for cementing silver from solution, that way we don't get so much copper into our silver.
Forget anything you have seen on youtube unless it is made from one of the members on the forum.
Here is a collection with some pointers to good youtube videos.
http://goldrefiningwiki.com/mediawiki/index.php/YouTube
Göran
Goran ilooked at the photo after your comment and even the coin looks yellow so it could just be the lighting.
Yes, that is why I asked if they really were as yellow as in the picture.nickvc said:
There are contactor points made up of molybdenum and silver which leaves a yellowish residue.
http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24807
Göran
Beehole1234
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Beehole1234
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So if I throw it all back in solution the copper should disollve and push out the silver .if I am understanding you correctly.once all the copper is gone I'll pull the silver out and put strait copper in to cement out any silver left in solution
Geo
Well-known member
It depends on which solution you are referring to. If it's the HCl and peroxide solution, there will not be any silver in the solution. Any silver that is dissolved in this solution will precipitate out of solution as silver chloride on it's own.
If you roast/incinerate the points that come from the HCl and peroxide and dissolve them in nitric acid, then you can use solid copper to cement the silver out of solution.
Silver chloride, from a chloride solution, is a solid.
Silver nitrate, silver dissolved in nitric acid, is a liquid.
AP or copper(II) chloride (HCl and peroxide) is a good way of removing the majority of copper from the silver as the silver will dissolve very little. In the overall scheme of things, not enough to even worry about. Once you have collected the points from the AP solution, it has to be heated to drive off any residual HCl. The points can then be dissolved in the minimum amount of nitric acid needed and then the silver can be cemented out of solution on copper. The cemented silver will be relatively pure (upper 90%) depending on how well you rinsed and handled the material.
Now all you need to know is how to do all of this. Start slow and do small batches. Never work inside without a fume hood. Never work with acids inside your house. Never breath any of the fumes. wear eye protection. Be safe.
If you roast/incinerate the points that come from the HCl and peroxide and dissolve them in nitric acid, then you can use solid copper to cement the silver out of solution.
Silver chloride, from a chloride solution, is a solid.
Silver nitrate, silver dissolved in nitric acid, is a liquid.
AP or copper(II) chloride (HCl and peroxide) is a good way of removing the majority of copper from the silver as the silver will dissolve very little. In the overall scheme of things, not enough to even worry about. Once you have collected the points from the AP solution, it has to be heated to drive off any residual HCl. The points can then be dissolved in the minimum amount of nitric acid needed and then the silver can be cemented out of solution on copper. The cemented silver will be relatively pure (upper 90%) depending on how well you rinsed and handled the material.
Now all you need to know is how to do all of this. Start slow and do small batches. Never work inside without a fume hood. Never work with acids inside your house. Never breath any of the fumes. wear eye protection. Be safe.
Beehole1234
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Ok thank you so much. I won'tbe watching any more you tube videos. That was very helpful. So the other stuff that cemented out of the solution is probably copper?
Geo
Well-known member
If it cemented out of a solution of HCl and peroxide onto steel, even stainless steel, yes it was copper.
Beehole1234
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Ok so i poured off a little solution and diluted it down sl i could see in it. There is a grey powder that fell to the bottom could this be silver that all the copper has pushed out?
Diluted copper chloride solution... grey powder... how about CuCl?
Pour off the clear solution, that is all CuCl2 and can only be used for another copper cloride leach. Wash the powder in HCl, I would hazard a guess that it will dissolve most of it, resulting in a very dark solution.
Put the grey-green connector in a beaker and wash with HCl, does it dissolve the surface and bring back the red copper surface?
If it does, then you only ran too long and ran out of HCl to dissolve the CuCl and that created a layer of gray surface on the copper. In air the copper and CuCl starts to react slowly and turns green over time.
If this doesn't help then I don't know what happened.
If you still have some powder left, catch it in a filter paper and let it dry out, then put it in sunlight, if it contains silver chloride it will turn purple after a while. If you have a lot of it, only take a sample and keep the rest wet for easier processing.
Silver chloride also turns black if you treat it with NaOH, this will turn it into silver oxide and can be dissolved in nitric acid.
Göran
Pour off the clear solution, that is all CuCl2 and can only be used for another copper cloride leach. Wash the powder in HCl, I would hazard a guess that it will dissolve most of it, resulting in a very dark solution.
Put the grey-green connector in a beaker and wash with HCl, does it dissolve the surface and bring back the red copper surface?
If it does, then you only ran too long and ran out of HCl to dissolve the CuCl and that created a layer of gray surface on the copper. In air the copper and CuCl starts to react slowly and turns green over time.
If this doesn't help then I don't know what happened.
If you still have some powder left, catch it in a filter paper and let it dry out, then put it in sunlight, if it contains silver chloride it will turn purple after a while. If you have a lot of it, only take a sample and keep the rest wet for easier processing.
Silver chloride also turns black if you treat it with NaOH, this will turn it into silver oxide and can be dissolved in nitric acid.
Göran
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Say you don't have access to any CP nitric and you're trying to remove a small amount of pewter that accidentally got melted into a 5oz bar of silver, would it be best to just let it be? Try burning it out by re-melting a few times? Soak the bar in an AP solution with a bubbler and heat? Or have a go at making poor man's ar? Sorry for all the questions fellas. Stumbled upon this thread and it helped me answer some curiosity, but I'm still not entirely clear on what I've read here just yet (still learning.) Ammonia helps in dissolving silver CHLORIDE? That's the first I've read about that so I'll be doing more research on that.
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So ammonia can dissolve silver chlorde, but that's really nasty stuff. Gonna leave that to the pros for now. Kinda makes me feel a bit of sympathy for the people who first figured out some of these chemical processes and methods wondering if they knew what to expect or if they just tried and got hit in the face with noxious gases. Jeez.
Edited to put in correct info: Thanks Dave!
Edited to put in correct info: Thanks Dave!
Nope, not quite. Read through again. ammonia dissolves silver ___________.DylanDownright84 said:
Dave
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Chloride. Thanks again Dave! I edited my post to reflect the correct info. Back to my relentless quest for knowledge.
