Testing question

[maltfoudy]

i have been stripping my old telecom boards,there are small rectangle pieces approx. 3/8 in long 1/4 high and 1/8 wide,i pull one off the board and cracked it open with my side cutter a very shiny silver color metal was inside,very thin foil stacked all the way through it,i put a small piece on my test stone and put a drop of my plat test acid on it and let it sit for 5 minutes,it did nothing what other metal could this be not to react with my nitric/muriatic test acid? and how can i test it further?

 

[Harold_V]

There's nothing wrong with the idea of removing some of the metal and heating it in a test tube with a touch of nitric and HCl. Some metals don't dissolve well with cold acids. Use very little acid--all you need to do is dissolve enough to react with stannous chloride. If the resulting solution doesn't test for one of the common precious metals-----you're on your own! :wink:

As a side note, if it happens to be silver (I don't know that it is, or that it should be), remember, you won't dissolve it with AR. A simple test for silver is to apply a drop of Schwerter's solution. If you have silver, you'll get an instant blood red reaction. It would also react to a drop of nitric, no HCl.

Harold