Silver Cell Electrolyte Worksheet

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Gsracer

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 21, 2020
Messages
154
After reading the forum and struggling to find some information, i stumbled upon a video from a user on here Palladium regarding when a silver electrolyte is depleted and you risk co-precipitation based off of Copper in solution.

I understand that there are more contaminants in addition to CU that are possible. However for the home user who processes mostly sterling i figure this will probably be the main contaminant.

Since i didn't find something similar, I made this spreadsheet to help understand.

There are 4 editable cells.

Copper threshold where you can adjust your desired copper threshold, i set this at 50 based off of the consensus i found of 40-60 g/l. But you can adjust it.

Electrolyte quantity where you input the quantity of the electrolyte

Dissolved AG quantity, where you input the amount of AG you used to make your solution.

Safety margin where you dictate a percentage of safety in the final numbers.

Adjusting any of the numbers will give you a theoretical yield of silver able to be processed before the electrolyte is depleted based off of copper concentration.


Critiques are welcome of course and if i got anything wrong please let me know and ill correct it.

I thought this could be of use to some of us home refiners. Hope this helps!

View attachment Silver Cell Electrolyte Worksheet.xlsx
 
I like your spreadsheet but it is not working for my silver cell. I have a 7 L cell with 444 g Ag dissolved. The spreadsheet says I should be able to process 2765 g 99% silver. I have processed over 4 kg of cement silver (~99% pure) and the copper content in my solution is less than 10g Cu/L based on reference soultions of cupric nitrate of 0,10,20,30,40 and 50 g Cu/L. I made the reference solutions using 2 sources of copper: copper pipe dissolved in nitric acid and Cu(NO3)2 3H20 dissolved in distlled water and diluted accrodingly.Perhaps if I could see the calucations in the spreadsheet I could better troubleshoot the discrepency.
 
I like your spreadsheet but it is not working for my silver cell. I have a 7 L cell with 444 g Ag dissolved. The spreadsheet says I should be able to process 2765 g 99% silver. I have processed over 4 kg of cement silver (~99% pure) and the copper content in my solution is less than 10g Cu/L based on reference soultions of cupric nitrate of 0,10,20,30,40 and 50 g Cu/L. I made the reference solutions using 2 sources of copper: copper pipe dissolved in nitric acid and Cu(NO3)2 3H20 dissolved in distlled water and diluted accrodingly.Perhaps if I could see the calucations in the spreadsheet I could better troubleshoot the discrepency.
Most spreadsheets show the formula in the field at the top. I forget the proper name, but it’s where the address bar is in a browser.
 
Hi Guys...
I'm using a silver electro tank with a rectifier.
Any idea what is the best volts and amps to run the tank at?
Thanks in advance
 
Hi Guys...
I'm using a silver electro tank with a rectifier.
Any idea what is the best volts and amps to run the tank at?
Thanks in advance
Not enough information.
What area do the Electrodes have?
What distance and so on.
 

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No need for pictures, only the Cathodes and Anodes and that means all of them if you have more than one set.
Then one can calculate the preferred amperage needed.
Voltage are usually kept as low as possible while running a stable current.
Than take the area of your Cathodes and multiply with the preferred Amps per square cm or inch and you will get the number you are looking for.
 
Please could you show how to work out?
I dont know what a stable current would be?
Then one can calculate the preferred amperage needed.
Voltage are usually kept as low as possible while running a stable current.
Than take the area of your Cathodes and multiply with the preferred Amps per square cm or inch and you will get the number you are looking for.
 
Please could you show how to work out?
I dont know what a stable current would be?
How about you calculate the area of your Cathode?
Then we can take it from there.
I have never used a Silver cell so I have to search for the desired current densities.
 
How about you calculate the area of your Cathode?
Then we can take it from there.
I have never used a Silver cell so I have to search for the desired current densities.
Ah sorry I understand your answer now I've read it back.
There are 6 cathodes.
Thank you so much for helping me out with this.
 
I'm sorry I dont know what that means.🙈
I have not been running Silver cells or other cells for that matter.
But for a cell to run efficient you aim for a certain current density which is given in Ampere per square unit.

I think I saw somewhere a number of 0.33A per square inch which gives 0.33/6.25 --> 0.053A per square cm
In this case 81600 times 0.053 which is around 4300Amps at 3.5 Volts this gives about 15Kw power consumption.
 
I just saw this thread having posted on your other Silver thread. If you go back there we can answer all of your questions in one place and end any confusion.

I’ve worked with many of the Italimpianti systems and I’m quite sure we can have you up and running quickly.
 
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