NobleMetalWorks
Well-known member
This has stumped me, I am hoping someone here might know what this is.
I have 38.5 lbs of gold plated discs that look like they might be battery contacts, but I am not sure what they were used for.
I dissolved a small amount in AR as a test, and precipitated with SMB. When I added SMB, Gold precipitated as an almost black powder which I assume means it dragged down another metal when it precipitated, but it also made a white cloud which looks like some type of chloride. I only used a very small amount of SMB so I do not feel that what I am seeing in the solution is excess SMB, something reacted with the SMB to make a chloride like cloud. If there was silver present, it should have made silver chloride before SMB, so at this point I wasn't suspecting silver at all. I did add a few drops of sulfuric acid to rid the solution of any lead before I added SMB. I would rather deal with a nitrates than chlorides, or anything that resembles chlorides, so I set the AR test aside and tried another method.
I took a small amount of these discs and dissolved then in Nitric Acid. It dissolved everything in a short amount of time and left the gold foils behind. The resulting solution was the blue color I have come to associate with copper nitrate. So now I know I have gold and copper and something else I have yet to identify. I am not sure what other metals are in this material so I didn't want to try Hcl/Cl in case there was Ruthenium in the mix or some other unknown metal. Sulfuric wasn't having any effect, I suspect because of the gold plating protecting the metals under the plating. Using a sulfuric cell with even a small amount of these discs makes the power source short repeatedly.
I dissolved 1 lb of these discs in a 50/50 solution of water/Nitric Acid. Waited 24 hours and was planning on filtering the gold foils. After the 24 hours the solution turned bright blue with gold foils and a white material on the bottom. If the white material was silver the only way it could have come out of solution was if the solution was so pregnant with silver nitrate, it forced it out of solution. Or if silver went into solution and was cemented out when the copper went into solution. However, the white material looks nothing like either of these. At this point I was almost certain the white material was not silver.
I filtered the solution to separate the gold foils and white material from the copper nitrate. Then washed the filtered material to separate the white material from the gold foils.
I spooned a small amount out to try to get a better picture, it's almost the consistency of yogurt, and very white.
Here is a picture of the gold foils
You can see the solution still looks milky, it hasn't been washed totally. I am having my nephew help me, I sustained an injury so I cannot really do any of this myself, and he wants to learn so it seemed like the perfect time for him to do so. When he comes over later today I am going to have him finish washing the foils. But this next picture shows some of the white material on the bottom of the beaker.
I have taken a small amount of the white material and tried to dissolve in Nitric Acid, with no reaction. I tried HCl with no reaction. I tried Sulfuric Acid with no reaction. I then made a small amount of AR and tried to dissolve the white material, with no reaction. I have not put any of the samples on heat to see if they could dissolve whatever the white material is into solution, I thought I would post here first before going any further to see if anyone else has come across this same conundrum.
I have foiled a lot of gold plated material, but I was surprised at how much gold foil just one lb of this material yields. I hate using terms like "heavy gold plate" but there seems to be a lot more gold than what I normally would have expected for this type of material. Observing the reaction, the gold foil comes off readily enough, the material under the gold turns almost black, and the solution starts turning blue. Here is another picture I took when the reaction stopped, and needed more nitric acid added to continue.
I am hoping this isn't Cadmium or some other metal I don't want to deal with, but as it's coming out as a solid, the only real hassle is in filtering it.
Does anyone have any idea what I am dealing with here, or have any suggestions on how I might proceed?
Thank you
Scott
I have 38.5 lbs of gold plated discs that look like they might be battery contacts, but I am not sure what they were used for.
I dissolved a small amount in AR as a test, and precipitated with SMB. When I added SMB, Gold precipitated as an almost black powder which I assume means it dragged down another metal when it precipitated, but it also made a white cloud which looks like some type of chloride. I only used a very small amount of SMB so I do not feel that what I am seeing in the solution is excess SMB, something reacted with the SMB to make a chloride like cloud. If there was silver present, it should have made silver chloride before SMB, so at this point I wasn't suspecting silver at all. I did add a few drops of sulfuric acid to rid the solution of any lead before I added SMB. I would rather deal with a nitrates than chlorides, or anything that resembles chlorides, so I set the AR test aside and tried another method.
I took a small amount of these discs and dissolved then in Nitric Acid. It dissolved everything in a short amount of time and left the gold foils behind. The resulting solution was the blue color I have come to associate with copper nitrate. So now I know I have gold and copper and something else I have yet to identify. I am not sure what other metals are in this material so I didn't want to try Hcl/Cl in case there was Ruthenium in the mix or some other unknown metal. Sulfuric wasn't having any effect, I suspect because of the gold plating protecting the metals under the plating. Using a sulfuric cell with even a small amount of these discs makes the power source short repeatedly.
I dissolved 1 lb of these discs in a 50/50 solution of water/Nitric Acid. Waited 24 hours and was planning on filtering the gold foils. After the 24 hours the solution turned bright blue with gold foils and a white material on the bottom. If the white material was silver the only way it could have come out of solution was if the solution was so pregnant with silver nitrate, it forced it out of solution. Or if silver went into solution and was cemented out when the copper went into solution. However, the white material looks nothing like either of these. At this point I was almost certain the white material was not silver.
I filtered the solution to separate the gold foils and white material from the copper nitrate. Then washed the filtered material to separate the white material from the gold foils.
I spooned a small amount out to try to get a better picture, it's almost the consistency of yogurt, and very white.
Here is a picture of the gold foils
You can see the solution still looks milky, it hasn't been washed totally. I am having my nephew help me, I sustained an injury so I cannot really do any of this myself, and he wants to learn so it seemed like the perfect time for him to do so. When he comes over later today I am going to have him finish washing the foils. But this next picture shows some of the white material on the bottom of the beaker.
I have taken a small amount of the white material and tried to dissolve in Nitric Acid, with no reaction. I tried HCl with no reaction. I tried Sulfuric Acid with no reaction. I then made a small amount of AR and tried to dissolve the white material, with no reaction. I have not put any of the samples on heat to see if they could dissolve whatever the white material is into solution, I thought I would post here first before going any further to see if anyone else has come across this same conundrum.
I have foiled a lot of gold plated material, but I was surprised at how much gold foil just one lb of this material yields. I hate using terms like "heavy gold plate" but there seems to be a lot more gold than what I normally would have expected for this type of material. Observing the reaction, the gold foil comes off readily enough, the material under the gold turns almost black, and the solution starts turning blue. Here is another picture I took when the reaction stopped, and needed more nitric acid added to continue.
I am hoping this isn't Cadmium or some other metal I don't want to deal with, but as it's coming out as a solid, the only real hassle is in filtering it.
Does anyone have any idea what I am dealing with here, or have any suggestions on how I might proceed?
Thank you
Scott