Nokia / ABS connectors big mess

[VanMarco]

Hello there!
I've made a big mess with connectors from nokia phones.
these were the black, abs pieces with gold pins. I put these in a jar with HCl alone, and base metals started dissolving slowly.
so as there's no tin, i just added like 10mL of nitric acid over 500ml of solution to form a weak AR, i did this many times with other types of connectors with no issue.
But.. these connector's plastics became.. goo. Now i have a solution that mildly smells like TCE, a gooey mess of half dissolved plastic block, and some connectors
that still have pins are are mushy.
A solution would be pyrolisis and/or incineration, but i have a couple questions about this.
WHenever is, that i incinerated anything with gold pins, it seems like the gold, vanishes. I dont understand how or why. so my fear is, that i lose all the gold.
And, if i do just pyrolisis and crushing, it'll be carbon, and metals. is this going to cause trouble?

Thanks!

 

[GoIdman]

Hi,

1) Why didnt you remove the pins from the plastic, they are very easy to remove with even a simple needle.
2) Nokia pins are not copper based contacts, therefore using a sulfuric cell would have been more economical and wastefree process.

What is the amount of pins/connectors you are working with?

Pete

 

[VanMarco]

1) I simply didn't know the plastic would dissolve that way
2) cannot get sulfuric acid

its; a single 1l jar full, i have more bags full of those, but i will definitely take the pins out.
Now, incineration may solve the issue for the 1 jar i messed up?

 

[anachronism]

It's an easily made mistake, but recoverable so no harm no foul. A good thing to do is always test the plastics you are looking to recover metals from in all the acids you are going be to using before you perform your full recovery. It tends to avoid this goopy thing

 

[VanMarco]

So, if i do pyrolize this mess (as in, burn into a closed container with just a few vents hole, like charcoal is done) My gold will not, "disappear", correct?
Thanks!

 

[Yggdrasil]

So, if i do pyrolize this mess (as in, burn into a closed container with just a few vents hole, like charcoal is done) My gold will not, "disappear", correct?
Thanks!

Your Gold will not "disappear" until you throw it away.
Let the vent holes go into the fire so the volatiles are properly burnt off.
Preferably with tube/s.

 

[GoIdman]

1) I simply didn't know the plastic would dissolve that way
2) cannot get sulfuric acid

its; a single 1l jar full, i have more bags full of those, but i will definitely take the pins out.
Now, incineration may solve the issue for the 1 jar i messed up?

2) OK, some sources of sulfuric are old batteries (car batteries, truck batteries and so on), take a walk to the nearest scrapyard where batteries are collected, and try to buy from them....that is between 35-37% sulfuric...you can concentrate it to 96% by boiling it down (outside or in fumehood)

Other source is drain cleaner, depending on your location, this may be tricky, in EU most of the countries sell as drain cleaner, almost 95-96% sulfuric. Other countries have restrictions since is a precursor for drugs.

Other source can be procured as battery electrolite found at autoparts stores, usually 35-37% sulfuric and sold by either 500ml or 1l plastic bottle. Needs to be concentrated as well. price is around 3euro/l

If you can manage to buy, sulfuric acid is a valuable acid to use for many things, but also needs to be respected and handled with care. It will eat you alive.

Hope this helps

Pete

 

[FrugalRefiner]

2) OK, some sources of sulfuric are old batteries (car batteries, truck batteries and so on), take a walk to the nearest scrapyard where batteries are collected, and try to buy from them....that is between 35-37% sulfuric...you can concentrate it to 96% by boiling it down (outside or in fumehood)

Just remember that batteries in a scrap yard are probably there because they don't work any more. The sulfuric acid combines with the lead to form lead sulphate. It may just be one cell, or it may be the whole battery.

Dave

 

[GoIdman]

Just remember that batteries in a scrap yard are probably there because they don't work any more. The sulfuric acid combines with the lead to form lead sulphate. It may just be one cell, or it may be the whole battery.

Dave

Indeed.....

 

[Alondro]

2) OK, some sources of sulfuric are old batteries (car batteries, truck batteries and so on), take a walk to the nearest scrapyard where batteries are collected, and try to buy from them....that is between 35-37% sulfuric...you can concentrate it to 96% by boiling it down (outside or in fumehood)

Other source is drain cleaner, depending on your location, this may be tricky, in EU most of the countries sell as drain cleaner, almost 95-96% sulfuric. Other countries have restrictions since is a precursor for drugs.

Other source can be procured as battery electrolite found at autoparts stores, usually 35-37% sulfuric and sold by either 500ml or 1l plastic bottle. Needs to be concentrated as well. price is around 3euro/l

If you can manage to buy, sulfuric acid is a valuable acid to use for many things, but also needs to be respected and handled with care. It will eat you alive.

Hope this helps

Pete

Using the drain cleaner, it's important to remember that most of these products have an organic inhibitor added to slow the reaction speed. To use as an acid for processing metals requires at least heating it to at least 90C to break down the inhibitor.

 

[VanMarco]

well well. the top of the jar was melted and gooey, but the remaining 2/3 was not, so i just put what was not gooey in CuCl2 with bubbler. the nokia pins are non magnetic.

 

[VanMarco]

so i successfully recovered the gold foils from that mess. But as I have more of these connectors, and it's kind of a pain to get all the little foil out from nooks and crannies once the base metals are gone, for real, wouldn't it be best to incinerate, crush and treat the ash and pins with the same weak AR? (no tin on these)
Thanks!

 

[Yggdrasil]

so i successfully recovered the gold foils from that mess. But as I have more of these connectors, and it's kind of a pain to get all the little foil out from nooks and crannies once the base metals are gone, for real, wouldn't it be best to incinerate, crush and treat the ash and pins with the same weak AR? (no tin on these)
Thanks!

Maybe better to treat it with AP first and then HCl/Peroxide, HCl/Bleach, HCl/Chlorine to dissolve the Gold foils after.
This should leave the plastic intact.