newbie

[KLM]

Ken Mantey here from the US, looking into an interesting site. I'm a Kiwanis member trying to support STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) in our community where we have sponsored Science Fairs for the past 10 years. I think GOLD is a common interest young or old. I have heard for some time about harvesting Gold from used Glucose Test Strips. Like many other diabetics I have been collecting them for a long time and thought it would be a great student project for the Fair. But before I lead an excited student down the wrong path, is gold still being used the test strips we use today. Specifically, ACCU-CHEK Guide test strips?
As I search and read the posts concerning used test strips, they are all pretty old, latest seems to be about 2016.
1) Do the ACCU-CHEK Guide strips still (2024/5) contain gold, palladium or both?
2) Is anyone currently working on and successful in getting anything of value from today's test strips?
Thank you for any leads and preventing me from leading an unsuspecting student down a rabbit hole,
KLM

 

[Yggdrasil]

Ken Mantey here from the US, looking into an interesting site. I'm a Kiwanis member trying to support STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Math) in our community where we have sponsored Science Fairs for the past 10 years. I think GOLD is a common interest young or old. I have heard for some time about harvesting Gold from used Glucose Test Strips. Like many other diabetics I have been collecting them for a long time and thought it would be a great student project for the Fair. But before I lead an excited student down the wrong path, is gold still being used the test strips we use today. Specifically, ACCU-CHEK Guide test strips?
As I search and read the posts concerning used test strips, they are all pretty old, latest seems to be about 2016.
1) Do the ACCU-CHEK Guide strips still (2024/5) contain gold, palladium or both?
2) Is anyone currently working on and successful in getting anything of value from today's test strips?
Thank you for any leads and preventing me from leading an unsuspecting student down a rabbit hole,
KLM

Welcome to us.

I can not say much on the content in test strips.
But are they electronically read and has gold colored pads or contacts on them?
They seem to according to my search on the net.
Do you have a picture of them?
Rabbit holes can be quite intriguing and full of wisdom can't they?

 

[KLM]

Welcome to us.

I can not say much on the content in test strips.
But are they electronically read and has gold colored pads or contacts on them?
They seem to according to my search on the net.
Do you have a picture of them?
Rabbit holes can be quite intriguing and full of wisdom can't they?

Yes,\\ they are electronically read. I thought they were gold colored, but now in taking pictures for you, they are really silver colored.
I did get ahold of Roche Diagnostics, maker of the Accu-chek strips. It was just a call center, but he did a nice job making some effort to talk to a few people and the consensus was that the strips have both gold and palladium, but in very small amounts, which everyone says.
1) I read that palladium is actually more valuable than gold, but no one talks about extracting that?
2) Is it a different process to extract palladium?
I suspect my holes are filled with rabbits.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Yes,\\ they are electronically read. I thought they were gold colored, but now in taking pictures for you, they are really silver colored.
I did get ahold of Roche Diagnostics, maker of the Accu-chek strips. It was just a call center, but he did a nice job making some effort to talk to a few people and the consensus was that the strips have both gold and palladium, but in very small amounts, which everyone says.
1) I read that palladium is actually more valuable than gold, but no one talks about extracting that?
2) Is it a different process to extract palladium?
I suspect my holes are filled with rabbits.

Yes Pd is different and much more dangerous as its salts are quite toxic. Read about Platinosis.

Gold is more valuable at this time.
Anyway there will notbe much so most of the value will be the experience and training.
What are the strips themself made of?
Paper or plastic?

 

[Yggdrasil]

Today Gold is 2600 Usd+ per Ozt
Pd is 995 Usd per Ozt

 

[KLM]

Yes Pd is different and much more dangerous as its salts are quite toxic. Read about Platinosis.

Gold is more valuable at this time.
Anyway there will notbe much so most of the value will be the experience and training.
What are the strips themself made of?
Paper or plastic?

White plastic.

 

[Yggdrasil]

White plastic.

A Cupric Chloride etch aka AP, would be fine to remove the foils from the plastic.
(HCl plus air bubbling)

Are there any chip or other components on them?