Silver plated copper contacts for manual reversing motor disconnect

[Jimbriese]

Hello everyone
So if anyone could help I get all kinds of industrial ewaste and other stuff I have been in the process of recovering the silver for some nema size one
AB contractors and have noticed that doing it in small batches of nitric that the reaction will stop and the silver will cement out on the copper base metal so I have been decanting off what should be just copper nitrate. Then I rinse all the loose cement silver and guessing tungsten power from the left over copper some of which still have some contact pads not fully dissolved. Don’t think it big deal will just pull out any contacts that have no silver left and do more nitric. My question is those are fairly small and I now have the large set of contacts in the picture. Is there a better way to remove and refine the silver off these or is nitric going to be the best and easiest way? Also I have some waste that I had treated with iron reclaimed the copper powder from then was raising the ph with sodium bicarbonate it’s currently at a ph of somewhere around 5-6 this was done before I found this forum and after reading the dealing with wastes here just want to make sure that I can continue raising the ph as suggested in the dealing with waste here or will the baking soda cause an unwanted reaction thanks in advance for the input. And thanks to all on this site it has helped me clear up a bunch of questions I have had in this new adventure I have embarked on.
Thanks
Jim

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

Someone smarter than me will chime in surely but I came across a method where the product is covered in dilute sulfuric acid then small amounts of nitric is added. The sulfuric protects the copper allowing the nitric to only consume the silver.

The name of the process escapes me at the moment....

Anyone? Anyone?

 

[butcher]

I run them in a copper cell type setup, to recover the silver as slime, and cathode copper.
Any contact points I normally do separately using different processes, after removing as much base metal as possible using mechanical means.

 

[Jimbriese]

Thought about the cell but at the moment I don’t have what I need to build a cell. And the larger lab purchases are put on hold right now till the checking comes back from the dreaded taxes that got paid this month lol

 

[butcher]

if most of what you have is copper with very little silver, you should consider being in the copper business, with silver the little extra gravy on the project.

I use a large glass bowl to give visual, with a large glass lid (old microwave plate) to keep bugs leaves and impurity out of electrolyte, a copper pipe with silver solder or a silver-plated buss bar for an anode connection, placed inside an old cotton sock with no toe holes, the anode bag full of silver-plated copper pieces, along with silver soldered copper pipe joints or other parts and pieces composed of copper and some silver in the anode bag.
Copper sulfate electrolyte, with a pure copper foil for the cathode which gains mass forming what resembles ocean coral made of copper.

I have made several posts with more details on the cell operation in general, as well as the recovery of the silver and reusing electrolyte, the power supply, and the regulating method used to control the current in the cell.

Keeping brass or other troublesome copper alloys out of the system.
The power supply can be as simple as a 12v battery charger (nonautomatic type, just the transformer, and diode type) and with a series, lamp to regulate the current through the system, a few wires, and a couple of alligator clips and you have a simple to run copper cell

Don't think I can't, (if you do you will not).
Think how can I do this and succeed, and study and work towards your goal to make it happen.

I started with virtually no lab equipment or knowledge, after gaining the understanding through study, I found the materials needed, and figured out ways to get things done without spending money on my lab equipment.
Although I eventually bought some lab glass and other apparatuses. I have yet to use them, I find my homemade setup or lab equipment reliable to get the job done (maybe not as pretty), much of my chemicals are not lab reagents, many chemicals reactants I make myself from a few chemicals you can buy at a hardware store, or use byproducts of our chemical reactions as reagent or use methods where the leach or reactions can be regenerated with very little chemicals or side reactions to help lower the amount of toxic waste to treat and deal with...
Start by studying, and use small experiments with what you studying to gain a better understanding.

With labware especially glassware, it took me some time to learn how it reacts, catch basins helped to keep those reactions controlled and my loss of values low, until I was able to learn what I could do with what and how to prevent problems...

 

[Jimbriese]

Thanks I have a nice battery charger just didn’t know it would work for a copper cell haven’t started looking into the electrical cells yet I have processed a small batch of plastic ic chip and a batch of some gold plated pins ran into a snag with the pins which I now know where I went wrong a lot of the pins were fully plated down through the solder so I pulled them with the solder and went straight to nitric acid to spend three day and a couple dozen filters later to get to the gold and I’m sure there is still more pms in the white paste that was filtered out sitting in a large glass vase waiting for the time to rework the paste with the info I have read on here about metastatic acid
So I have a bout a gallon of what should be pure copper nitrate would that work for the electrolyte or do I need to make up some copper sulfate ?

 

[butcher]

You can spend a lot of time getting nowhere and experimenting with things you do not truly understand.

With research and study you can eliminate a lot of problems, making experiments more useful as with some understanding things begin to click and you spend more time getting desired results.

Once you learn where to find scrap and begin to acquire it, from that point you have the values, no sense in jumping into it blindly losing them, collect more while you study and get set up to process the material with an understanding and a good chance for success in your recovery and then refining of the values

If the solution is fairly pure copper nitrate solution.

You can make copper sulfate from your copper nitrate solution.

Nitric acid is much more volatile than sulfuric acid, by adding sulfuric acid any nitrate salts will be converted to nitric by the hydronium ion the sulfuric acid provides, and the more volatile gas will evaporate off as a gas with heating and slow evaporation, driving off nitrate ions and nitric ions as gases, converting the metal salts to sulfate salts.

Optimally by adding sulfuric acid and distilling off nitric acid for reuse, or just heating to remove the nitric as NOx gas converting the copper nitrate to a copper sulfate solution.

 

[Jimbriese]

Thanks very much for the info I believe it was nurdrage that I seen had a video on copper nitrate to copper sulfate and nitric acid I will do some more research till I understand everything then proceed.

And sorry it takes me a while to respond I do have a reading comprehension disability so I read very slow and sometimes I might have to reread a paragraph or a sentence 6-8-10 times before I understand what’s being said. So with that I have found that if I can put what I read into hands on experience I can understand what I’m reading much better. So yes I will end up making messes and then figure out how to fix the mess and where things didn’t go right so as to not do it again.
I would also like to thank you and everyone else on this forum for there knowledge and time as you guys have been a very big help in understanding this hobby