Precipitate Silver

[carloc]

Hi, I would like to know if using copper metal I will be able to precipitate silver from my solution. The metals and solution will be as follows. I will be putting Gold Karrat Jewelry containing silver into nitric acid. When the reaction has finished, I will filter and separate the solution from the gold witch should be at the bottom of the solution not purified. Now the solution will contain dissolved silver and possibly any other base metals in there. If i simply now put copper metal into the solution will the silver precipitate onto the copper from my solution. Will this work and am i going about it the right way, any and all help would be great Thank you

 

[goldsilverpro]

The nitric acid will do nothing unless the gold is a very low karat. What you are suggesting will work, but you will first have to melt the gold with enough silver to reduce the gold content to 6K. This is called inquartation. This may be what you're saying but it's hard to tell.

 

[maynman1751]

The nitric acid will do nothing unless the gold is a very low karat. What you are suggesting will work, but you will first have to melt the gold with enough silver to reduce the gold content to 6K. This is called inquartation. This may be what you're saying but it's hard to tell.

What Chris is saying is if you don,t inquart(lessen the karat content) to begin with the nitric will do nothing. If you have inquarted then yes, the silver will cement out on the copper.
It sounds like you need to do more research and studying of the processes before you attempt anything. If you had you would have known the answer to your question.

 

[MysticColby]

explained: If the gold is too high a content, the nitric will dissolve the non-gold, leaving a gold barrier that prevents further dissolving of other metals. If the gold is 6K or below, it is sparse enough not form a barrier and allow nitric to reach the inside metals (or simply fall off)