Non-Chemical Tin plating

[Junkman Jim]

I have a silver cell that produces the most beautiful silver crystals, some up to an inch long at the rate of 6 to 12 ounces Troy per day. The sludge left in the bottom of the cell is black and melts very well. Knowing where the material came from and the color of the metal leads me to believe it's tin. I believe there's still some silver left in this metal, I would like to recover both the silver and the tin. I also have some used solder that contains gold, if I electrowin the tin I can then recover the gold. Please tell me the formula for the electrolyte, and the required voltage to electrowin tin.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Junkman Jim

 

[lazersteve]

Jim,

Welcome to the forum.

The silver crystal is awesome.

Could you post your cell information? Please include voltage, amperage, electrolyte, electrode, and spacing details. I have several cell designs and would like to make a silver cell that can produce crystals like the one you have posted.

As for the sludge from your cell, you can get the gold out of the tin while it is still in sludge form by simply washing the tin / gold mix with hot HCl. The tin will go into solution and the gold can be reprocessed with AR or HCl-Cl to purify it.

As for retrieving the tin from the stannous chloride solution here's a simple yet useful link involving the electrolysis of tin chloride solutions:

Electrolysis of Tin Chlorides and other common salts.

Great post Jim,

Steve

 

[Junkman Jim]

Jim,

Welcome to the forum.

The silver crystal is awesome.

Could you post your cell information? Please include voltage, amperage, electrolyte, electrode, and spacing details. I have several cell designs and would like to make a silver cell that can produce crystals like the one you have posted.

As for the sludge from your cell, you can get the gold out of the tin while it is still in sludge form by simply washing the tin / gold mix with hot HCl. The tin will go into solution and the gold can be reprocessed with AR or HCl-Cl to purify it.

As for retrieving the tin from the stannous chloride soluiton here's a simple yet useful link involving the electrolysis of tin chloride solutions:

Eelctrolysis of Tin Chlorides and other common salts.

Great post Jim,

Steve

Steve,
Thanks for the info, the site you gave me doesn't specify electrolyte or voltage for tin, any other ideas.
Thanks again,
Jim[/quote]

 

[rainmaker]

Try joining the "electroplating" group on Yahoo. I joined about a year ago, and have so much information archived in the form of e-mails back and forth between member, it is just awesome.

A good source of information and a good stimilus for the brain to cause you to "think out of the box"

Rainmaker

 

[Anonymous]

I am surprised that no one makes jewerly with crystals like that they are great.

 

[lazersteve]

Jim,

I think the electrolytes are just the metal chlorides or nitrates dissolved in water with an appropriate amount of the corresponding acid to make the pH slightly acid.

As for the voltages, a little experimenting with an adjustable power supply should help determine them.

Steve

 

[Junkman Jim]

I am surprised that no one makes jewerly with crystals like that they are great.

Jim,
I sure thought about that and I have a bunch of them and they're all different. Problem is they're not hooked together very well, a little fragile.
Jim

 

[Junkman Jim]

Try joining the "electroplating" group on Yahoo. I joined about a year ago, and have so much information archived in the form of e-mails back and forth between member, it is just awesome.

A good source of information and a good stimilus for the brain to cause you to "think out of the box"

Rainmaker

That's what the cremator said.

Rainmaker,
Thanks for the info, I'll give it a try.
Jim

 

[Lino1406]

Stannous fluoborate, Sn++ = 320g/l
Fluoboric acid 48g/l
Boric acid 48g/l
stabilizer (peptone, gelatin, resorcinol etc.)

 

[peter i]

Beautiful!

I would love to hear some details about your cell.

Welcome to the forum.


Very careful soldering might strengthen the crystal-clusters, but will not help much in the issue of softness. (Ok, I focus a little too much on jewellery made to be used and abused... )

 

[Junkman Jim]

Beautiful!

I would love to hear some details about your cell.

Welcome to the forum.


Very careful soldering might strengthen the crystal-clusters, but will not help much in the issue of softness. (Ok, I focus a little too much on jewellery made to be used and abused... )

Peter,
Go to "Silver Cell details" and see if that's enough information, if not I would be glad to answer questions.
Jim

 

[Rag and Bone]

Are the crystals durable enough to handle or make jewelry with? If not, is there a way to strengthen them?

It seems like a great value added product. I'll be making a mini-cell once the weather starts keeping a guy indoors.

 

[Junkman Jim]

Are the crystals durable enough to handle or make jewelry with? If not, is there a way to strengthen them?

It seems like a great value added product. I'll be making a mini-cell once the weather starts keeping a guy indoors.

Read what Peter wrote and some of the other posts, we've been talking about jewelry. I just went through some of the crystals to see if they were durable enough for jewelry. The long ones from 1/2 inch to just over an inch seem to be pretty sturdy, I bent some of them back and forth to see if they would hold together and they withstood several bends. I still don't think they would withstand prolonged wear. They might do well embedded in acrylic resin. How about just putting them in a small vial? Another problem is that they have sharp edges.
My cell is down for maintenance, when I get it running again I will experiment with different anode/cathode sizes/distances, different voltages, and longer run time. The long crystals didn't grow until after 10 hours or so.
Good luck,
Jim