Non-Chemical Stir bar for hydrochloric acid and bleach

[DJPGold]

I’ve watched a lot of gold foil refining videos, with the gold foils being treated with hydrochloric acid and bleach. All the videos say use lots and lots of stirring but none use a stir bar. Is there any reason for this other than lack of equipment

 

[Shark]

Foils dissolve easily and the need for a stir bar isn’t worth it, to me. If you have one use it, but I wouldn’t go out and buy one. Of coarse that depends on how many foils your doing, but a basic stir rod and minimal effort will get it done.

 

[MicheleM]

Stirring is not necessary with foils, for coarse gold powder is a different story. If you stir the liquid with a bar but the container is left open, chlorine gas will escape quickly. You should use a lid with a fixed object that you can move from the outside or simply by moving the entire container by hand , (i.e. rotations of +-45 degrees along the x,y axis, orthogonal to the z one, with z the symmetry axis of your container orthogonal to his base

 

[orvi]

Stirring is not necessary with foils, for coarse gold powder is a different story. If you stir the liquid with a bar but the container is left open, chlorine gas will escape quickly. You should use a lid with a fixed object that you can move from the outside or simply by moving the entire container by hand , (i.e. rotations of +-45 degrees along the x,y axis, orthogonal to the z one, with z the symmetry axis of your container orthogonal to his base

Nice scientific explanation

Yeah, it is sufficient to move the beaker manually. If you intend to buy a stirbar (I assume for magnetic stirrer plate), then practically all I ever seen were PTFE. It should be stated somewhere - and if ordering from less reliable source, find the statement it is PTFE. I ordered many many proffesional ones from trusted companies like VWR, and alots of them from Aliexpress. Not seeing a difference yet. But for chlorine it must be PTFE or similarly resistent plastic like PVDF.