silver contacts Excess Nitric when dropping silver

[artistiqu]

I have some silver contacts and put them into 50/50 solution Nitric and distilled water. All the contacts desolved into the liquid and did not see any brown smoke. Used copper to drop the silver. There must have been rich nitric in the solution because it used a good bit of copper and I ended up with more material than expected. I dried dried the powder gun metal gray and when heated put off lots of smoke. I melted a small amount and poured it into water. I can see copper with the silver. Any advise? Gary

 

[Irons]

Use only as much Nitric as it takes to dissolve the Silver. What you did is a common mistake that most everyone makes at first.

Add a little and if there's any Silver left, add a little more. Start out with contacts with just water enough to cover them, add a bit of Nitric and warm it up.

Remember, you pay twice for excess acid. Once when you buy it and another time when you have to get rid of it.

 

[artistiqu]

Thanks Irons, I think I'll run the silver powder in nitric again and try redropping it. adding a little acid as stated. see what happens. Gary