Washington members- sodium sulfide

[nh6886]

Hello,

I am looking for some Sodium Sulfide in Washington state is there a member that would be willing to share a location to purchase some Sodium Sulfide locally.
If you would rather PM the source I am more than willing to respect your desire to keep a supplier out of the spot light. I am a safety conscious, ecologically responsible small scale miner, recycler and refiner. I have been a member here on the greatest forum on the net for sometime now and pride myself in being responsible.
I would very much like to avoid paying a hazmat fee/shipping that's twice the cost of the product.

Thanks for looking,

John

 

[Lino1406]

Potassium polysulfide acceptable?

 

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

nh6886:

Sodium sulphide is a common raw material in food and textil industries,anyway if you can not buy it then you can produce it ...How about to produce it by your own?...you just need some sodium hydroxide and sulfur.

BTW,Why do you need sodium sulphide?.

Kindest Regards.

Manuel

 

[nh6886]

Lino
I'm not familiar with Potassium polysulfide so I will have to get back to you.

Thanks
John

 

[nh6886]

Hello Manuel,

It was your posts that gave rise to my search for sodium sulfide. I have access to some industrial X-Radiography fixer and I have been reading and working with very small batches and reading some more to try and determine the best way for me to recover the silver.
I read in one of your posts about using sodium sulfide to recover the silver and replenish a thiosulfate solution at the same time. That sounds great to me so that's why I was looking. I did find a source that sent me a small amount of the fused flake without all the hazmat drama and I have just completed the text to post on my results.
I will post that tonight and would appreciate your input.
I would be very interested in making my own sodium sulfide, if you cared to point me in the right direction that would be appreciated.

All the best,
John

 

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

John:

It is a shame that we live so far away,otherwise, I would send to you,with pleasure,10 kilos of sodium sulphide just to carry out your research.

Well,if you can not buy sodium sulphide then you can produce it but it is necessary to observe all the safety precautions for handling corrosive materials(please,read them here in the Forum).

Get some sodium hydroxide,add slowly and carefully a little bit of tap water,the solution becomes hot,now add sulfur and mix well,sodium sulphide has been formed and stays in solution so let it settle down,filter the solution and evaporate the liquid until a yellow mud is formed...this is your sodium sulphide.

If the going gets rough just let me know.

Kindest regards.

Manuel

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Get some sodium hydroxide,add slowly and carefully a little bit of tap water,the solution becomes hot,now add sulfur and mix well,sodium sulphide has been formed and stays in solution so let it settle down,filter the solution and evaporate the liquid until a yellow mud is formed...this is your sodium sulphide.

If anyone tries this method, keep in mind that sodium sulfide isn't very stable. As you're evaporating the water, the solution will be evolving H₂S gas. Very smelly, as well as toxic, corrosive, flammable and explosive! It also quickly deadens the sense of smell, so just because you don't notice the smell anymore doesn't means it's not there.

Dave

 

[nh6886]

Thanks Manuel,

I did find some sodium sulfide in one pound quantity without the hazmat extortion. My research is going good I was going to post my results but someone much smarter than I am asked me some questions that I needed to answer first so it will be soon. I appreciate your instructions for the sodium sulfide I will certainly make some. I did a bar tonight from 5 liters of fix see the picture below. I didn't recover everything your the wire tests how's to be there it silvers the copper wire in 1 second. But my recovery is 5.66 grams/liter and I didn't wash all my drying dishes or burn the filter so there is a bit more. I have checked the solution for silver and found none remaining. I kept all my slag so maybe I'll figure it out sometime. I find this very challenging and enjoy every step. I will check these with XRF and add the purity when I do.

There is a long list of people that helped me along the way, you are certainly one of them.
Thanks very much for your help.
John

 

[Juan Manuel Arcos Frank]

Nice job!!!!!

 

[nh6886]

Thank you Manuel,

That means a lot coming from you.
I checked with XRF today and it reported 98.93% Ag but didn't list the balance. That is likely flux. I will stock pile some of this then refine when I do I will have some better purity numbers.
Thanks to everyone who shares their information on the forum and makes this possible.

John