The room temp solution (400ml) came from nitric parting during dissolution of inquarted gold jewellery and contains plenty of free nitric.
I added some cement silver shot and and some cement silver powder (approc 10 g) with the intention of using up / some of the free nitric. I had expected the powered silver to react quite vigorously so added slowly but i saw no discernible reaction at all. No fumes or bubbles - nothing. The silver just sat there and so i would stir it up well a couple of times a day as a curiosity over the past 4 days or so.
This seemingly inert silver would need filtering off anyway so i decided to cement on copper and process all of the solids in one go.
It cemented beautifully with a single copper baton - no fumes, no bubbles just a lovely gentle cementation. Then i decided to add 2 more batons just to speed the cementation along.
From here on it got puzzling. The nitric 'woke' up after approx 5 mins. Strong fumes and vigorous outgassing from the previously sedate silver cement. I withdrew the copper and since then the nitric is chewing its way through the cemented silver and the perviously added shot and powder.
I have never seen it work this way. Is there a quantitiy of copper that acts as a catalyst somehow or was this this just a delayed, inevitable reaction that would sustain itself when there was enough cement silver for the nitric to work on?
I added some cement silver shot and and some cement silver powder (approc 10 g) with the intention of using up / some of the free nitric. I had expected the powered silver to react quite vigorously so added slowly but i saw no discernible reaction at all. No fumes or bubbles - nothing. The silver just sat there and so i would stir it up well a couple of times a day as a curiosity over the past 4 days or so.
This seemingly inert silver would need filtering off anyway so i decided to cement on copper and process all of the solids in one go.
It cemented beautifully with a single copper baton - no fumes, no bubbles just a lovely gentle cementation. Then i decided to add 2 more batons just to speed the cementation along.
From here on it got puzzling. The nitric 'woke' up after approx 5 mins. Strong fumes and vigorous outgassing from the previously sedate silver cement. I withdrew the copper and since then the nitric is chewing its way through the cemented silver and the perviously added shot and powder.
I have never seen it work this way. Is there a quantitiy of copper that acts as a catalyst somehow or was this this just a delayed, inevitable reaction that would sustain itself when there was enough cement silver for the nitric to work on?
