Deep blue stannous chloride test

Hello all, after feverishly searching online and in the forums/book I can not for the life of me find any information of what a deep blue stannous test concludes. I had about 40 ceramic cups from telecom boards that I added to the ball mill, ground them up as much as possible, which really didn’t work so I just took a hammer to them, and then treated them with some dilute nitric acid. I did a stannous test just to see if anything came up and I got this color. After that I treated the remains with aqua regia and I believe I have platinum in this newer solution with a slightly yellow stannous.

I’m not sure what this first nitric solution could contain?? Has anybody else gotten this reading as well? That is the solution sitting next to the stannous, I appreciate it!

So you just dribbled your gold and stannous on your table top???

Shark said:

So you just dribbled your gold and stannous on your table top???

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Yes

That means your test results are everything on your table plus what you have in solution. We would need to know everything that has ever been on that table and everything in your beaker as well. Try adding one drop to a piece of filter paper or paper towel, then one drop close enough for the two to mix as it soaks into the paper. Then see what color you get.

Shark said:

That means your test results are everything on your table plus what you have in solution. We would need to know everything that has ever been on that table and everything in your beaker as well. Try adding one drop to a piece of filter paper or paper towel, then one drop close enough for the two to mix as it soaks into the paper. Then see what color you get.

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Still blue..

Cheffrey17 said:

Still blue..

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Then I have no idea, I have never seen that color test results. But a wild guess, cobalt..??..

Maybe some others can be more help.

Shark said:

So you just dribbled your gold and stannous on your table top???

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I also got a turquoise colored response from my metal when I put 70% nitric on the metal a turquoise color blue came back any idea what it means thanks

A m e e n S b i t a n i said:

I also got a turquoise colored response from my metal when I put 70% nitric on the metal a turquoise color blue came back any idea what it means thanks

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If I recall correctly a blueish color from nitric added directly to metal would be silver.

Edit: blue may be from copper under silver (plate). It has been a while since I have tested any silver.

Cheffrey17 said:

Hello all, after feverishly searching online and in the forums/book I can not for the life of me find any information of what a deep blue stannous test concludes. I had about 40 ceramic cups from telecom boards that I added to the ball mill, ground them up as much as possible, which really didn’t work so I just took a hammer to them, and then treated them with some dilute nitric acid. I did a stannous test just to see if anything came up and I got this color. After that I treated the remains with aqua regia and I believe I have platinum in this newer solution with a slightly yellow stannous.

I’m not sure what this first nitric solution could contain?? Has anybody else gotten this reading as well? That is the solution sitting next to the stannous, I appreciate it!

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To come back to this, I just realized your blue test came from a nitric solution and not AR. Then your AR test showed a light yellow? Would you have a picture for the AR results?

You may have seen this but here is a common comparison picture of stannous tests. Of course they can vary depending on how much or if other pgm’s are involved. Even many non pm metals can alter the colors to some degree, but you have already learned this.

Cheffrey17 said:

Hello all, after feverishly searching online and in the forums/book I can not for the life of me find any information of what a deep blue stannous test concludes. I had about 40 ceramic cups from telecom boards that I added to the ball mill, ground them up as much as possible, which really didn’t work so I just took a hammer to them, and then treated them with some dilute nitric acid. I did a stannous test just to see if anything came up and I got this color. After that I treated the remains with aqua regia and I believe I have platinum in this newer solution with a slightly yellow stannous.

I’m not sure what this first nitric solution could contain?? Has anybody else gotten this reading as well? That is the solution sitting next to the stannous, I appreciate it!

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Platinum and Gold do not dissolve in Nitric alone.
There should be no Platinum in modern chips.
And most of what was there is still embedded in the pieces.
You need to pyrolize and incinerate them, them grind and gravity separate them.
Any Carbon will bind up some of the Precious metals.

If you left the metal plates on the CPU’s, the yellow could indicate iron and more likely tungsten. Real head scratcher here.

I’ll take more pictures of the chips, the AR solution and the AR stannous test when I get home from work, there weren’t any heat spreaders on the chips though.

I’ll update y’all get home! I appreciate everyone’s input so far though, thank you!

With little bit of imagination, I would say palladium. Stannous of Pd can take many different shades of green, greenish blue to even brownish-green to black. It very depends on conditions.

And my recommendation for future - do not process CPUs by nitric. Go straight AR, as kovar do not dissolve well in nitric, and legs of CPUs are usually something like kovar. Also, it cannot get to the base metal through gold plating easily.
Below photo of Pd-positive stannous in low concentrations (more blue-ish ones).

orvi said:

With little bit of imagination, I would say palladium. Stannous of Pd can take many different shades of green, greenish blue to even brownish-green to black. It very depends on conditions.

And my recommendation for future - do not process CPUs by nitric. Go straight AR, as kovar do not dissolve well in nitric, and legs of CPUs are usually something like kovar. Also, it cannot get to the base metal through gold plating easily.
Below photo of Pd-positive stannous in low concentrations (more blue-ish ones).

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I'd say that the color the poster ask about is more in the Cobalt blue and very saturated.

It's either W or Mo blue made by reducing those species in solution with the stannous chloride.

Lou said:

It's either W or Mo blue made by reducing those species in solution with the stannous chloride.

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I was talking about the color.
So W and Mo will give blue, good to know.

Lou said:

It's either W or Mo blue made by reducing those species in solution with the stannous chloride.

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That is a thing I never personally tested, and there were situations I certainly had some W and Mo in solution.
I need to try it myself, just to get familiar with it.
Thanks for interesting and informative input

Lou said:

It's either W or Mo blue made by reducing those species in solution with the stannous chloride.

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Well at least one of my two brain cells was trying to work. I was beginning to think they both were taking a nap.

Good afternoon! Here are the pics of the materials, the top is the platinum solution in AR, along with the stannous test at the top and the nitric solution at the bottom with the blue stannous test.

These ceramic chips did not have any legs they were BGA style and from what I could see I didn’t see any gold bonding wires or any gold in them whatsoever, which is why I opted for a nitric leach first to see if it was some kind of alloy what metal I would get first. It seems there is a bit of platinum in the AR but as Yggdrasil said I will burn the remaining chips and grind them up finer to extract the rest. The stannous test for the AR solution with platinum shows up yellow but disappears fairly quickly so I’d assume there is not a whole lot in solution.

I was just really confused on this blue stannous! Never seen such a deep blue color before and I could not find ANYTHING online about it, I’ll do some research and see how to extract the tungsten or molybdenum, I’m hoping it’s fairly simple and straightforward! Has anybody here extracted them from a nitric leach before? Any tips?

Thanks again everyone!

Lou said:

It's either W or Mo blue made by reducing those species in solution with the stannous chloride.

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How would "W" achieve a state where it could even be considered for a reduction?. Ol "W" is tougher than Chuck Norris with an extra fist hidden behind his beard.