stannus chloride formula and use

[Lou]

The black powder is probably antimony.

 

[markqf1]

I like the plastic spoons as well.

Some times I dip a q-tip into it and let it dry.

When gold is there, it will stain the spoon if you let it evaporate.

Mark

 

[Harold_V]

What I finally used that I like the best is a small, white, plastic measuring spoon.

A porcelain spot plate is not expensive and will last you for years, assuming you don't drop it. I used mine for more than 20 years. It went with the refining business when it was sold. I recommend the spot plate highly. I used other methods, none of which came close to measuring up.

Harold

 

[qst42know]

I ended up buying one. And have placed a Coors dark cobalt blue one for silver work on my wish list.

 

[tlcarrig]

Yea, the black powder is antimony. I have heard that stannous chloride is not stable and will not be good for very long. Anybody else have anything on this? I like the idea of the plastic spoon. The porcelain plate sounds interesting too. Is this something that is specially made or will a porcelain tile work?

 

[qst42know]

Search (spot plate) on eBay. Models with 6 or 12 wells to test in can be had. I have yet to see the cobalt blue one in the second hand market as yet. I call dibbs on the first one. :lol:

A reference gold solution to test your Stannous is recommended

 

[Harold_V]

will a porcelain tile work?

It will work, but it doesn't have cavities the way a spot plate does. The cavities keep the drops being tested where you want them. When you're finished with your tests, you rinse the contents to your stock pot, so you can recover the traces of values. It's not much, but there's no reason to discard anything that is so easily recovered----and you don't have to incinerate paper or plastic/wooden sticks that are associated with swabs. Overall, a much easier way to test, and you can perform multiple tests, such as using a bit of ferrous sulfate to eliminate gold, so a stannous test can reveal the presence of platinum or palladium. They're just very handy!

If you end up with a spot plate and find it likes to get stained a little, rinse it in hot water, then apply a drop of nitric and a few drops of HCl to the cavities that are stained. Instantly dissolved and returned to new condition. The drops of acid should then be rinsed to the stock pot. Heating the spot plate with hot water makes the acid clean faster.

Harold

 

[aflacglobal]

I have heard that stannous chloride is not stable and will not be good for very long. Anybody else have anything on this?

I had some in a stoppered bottle that i pulled out the other day that has be stored for a little over a year.

When i put it up i left a piece of undissolved solder in the bottle. When i got it out the other day all i did was add a little Hcl to what was there and used it. Worked fine.

 

[tlcarrig]

Thanks for the info on the plates guys. Onlinesciencemall is a seller on e-bay that has the plates. There were two or three other sellers with a couple of them having plastic plates. Aflac, is your bottle brown, green or clear. Asking because some chemicals are photo sensitive. Don't know about SnCl.

 

[aflacglobal]

Clear. It's been in my storage building in the dark though. But not climate controlled.

 

[Lou]

It's best to keep stannous chloride in a strong HCl solution in a dark bottle. Overtop you should put a little hexane or naptha to act as a barrier against oxygen. Doing this and you can keep the stannous for years.

 

[bmgold]

Since I needed to make up some new stannous chloride test solution to fill my new dropper bottle I decided to document my procedure in pictures.

The first picture shows the materials used to make the solution. There is muriatic acid (HCl), lead-free solder which contains tin and antimony, a test tube in a small plastic jar for support (hard to see in this picture ), the small dropper bottle with a funnel and coffee filter to catch the undisolved antimony, and an alcohol lamp to heat it up.

The next picture shows the HCl and tin solder being heated. Bubbles are forming on the rolled up piece of solder. Heating it up a little speeds the process up.

The next picture shows the dark solution. You can't tell from the picture but the darkness is from the antimony floating around in the bubbling solution. This will settle to the bottom or can be filtered out.

I don't have a picture of the solution filtering because I didn't filter it yet. I'm letting it react longer and settle out on its own.

 

[bmgold]

As a test for my new batch of stannous chloride I checked a couple samples.

The first one was known to contain gold.

The second test was a batch in process and it obviously has no dissolved gold in it.

I hope someone learns something from these pictures. Maybe that someone will be me. Correct me if needed :wink:

 

[OMG]

I had made some stannous chloride from tin solder and hcl, then filtered it and let evaporate until crystals started forming. They are clear slender crystals. Are these stannous chloride crystals or would they be something else (oxychloride?). If they are stannous chloride and i just put them in a bottle and cap it will they last and still be good to use to test for pms?

 

[LittleJohnnyH2SO4]

I had made some stannous chloride from tin solder and hcl, then filtered it and let evaporate until crystals started forming. They are clear slender crystals. Are these stannous chloride crystals or would they be something else (oxychloride?). If they are stannous chloride and i just put them in a bottle and cap it will they last and still be good to use to test for pms?

These are probably stannous chloride dihydrate and will keep just fine in an airtight jar. You will need to make up a solution before testing for precious metals, of course.

The oxychloride would probably precipitate as a white powder and be impossible to redissolve in water. Was there extra HCl left over? If so, they are almost definetly stannous chloride.