The white precipitate is Ag2SO4, which is poorly soluble in water, but very soluble in concentrated H2SO4. As soon as you diluted the acid, the precipitate formed. That precipitate contains most of your silver. You can either try to dissolve it into a huge amount of water, or you can put about 500 ml of distilled water and NaCl and stirr. Because the Kps (solubility product constant, Ksp (AgCl) = 1.7 x10-10) of AgCl is much smaller than that of Ag2SO4 (1.2⋅10−5), an exchange will happen as the equilibrium is displaced to form 99.99% AgCl in the precipitate. You should be able to recover your silver after that...

@KallePihlajasaari

4 жыл бұрын

This looks like a good way of handling it. Just add the salt without decanting and let the alchemy do the work.

@lukebaehr3851

Жыл бұрын

What would the happen if there was copper in that solution? How would you handle that?

@rallyefilmer

Жыл бұрын

@@lukebaehr3851 There was copper in solution

@rallyefilmer

Жыл бұрын

What about mixing the AgSO4 directly with NaOH and do the procedure like it was AgCl ?

@sreetips

Жыл бұрын

That might work

Great content as always! I thoroughly enjoy gaining hobbies and enjoy it even more when I can learn from others' mistakes! Thank you very much for putting your experience online!

My favorite part is when he shows his lunch. You should have said, "I add in the 50 ml of dilute acetic acid to the 100 ml of olive oil, give it a good stir, and add it to my lunch". (acetic acid is vinegar) ps. I get the feeling he is subtly flexing on us by showing off his watch.

@AppliedCryogenics

3 жыл бұрын

I had to do a Google Lens search. Omega Constellation in yellow gold? Pfft. I'm not going to wear anything on my wrist that has a higher street price than my hand! Totally feel you about the lunch.

@xmachine7003

3 жыл бұрын

Flexing...😂😂😂😂

@xmachine7003

3 жыл бұрын

@@AppliedCryogenics Work in the cryogenic industry?

I really like the little things you do in your videos to show a personal side to all of the things you do. Keep it up, Sreetips!

I been watching you for many years!🙂 You Sir are the Bruce Lee of precious metal recovery💪🏅🏅🏅🏅🏅🏆 Thank you so much for all you do!🙏

Cool video REETIPS! Thanks for sharing that process with us. Aloha😉

Learning more and more every day! Thank you! You know that silver bar being stamped "reetips" is a mint error. It will be rare and sought after one day. Just subscribed to tomoko's

I keep watching your videos and I sure appreciate this. I'm so glad you put these out there. I'm learning a lot. I'll be doing it real soon.

This is a fantastic resource, thanks Sreetips, definately a thumbs up and saved to my refining playlist! Now if only there were a way to do something similar with gold... 🤔

Interesting method, I had not thought of this approach before, thanks for sharing. . As a chemist, regarding the precipitate: I can think of two possibilities: (1) silver sulphate is actually only moderately soluble in water. (0.83 g/100 mL at 25 deg C, and only 1.33 g/100 mL at 10 deg C), and much more so in concentrated sulphuric acid. So: one possibility is that the white precipitate is silver sulphate that crashed out of solution when you diluted the sulphuric acid. In that case, your yield can be much improved by using (a lot) more water, so that all the silver sulphate stays in solution. I think this is what was meant in your textbook by 'a considerable amount' of water. Note also that without stirring, the dense sulphuric acid solution will tend to settle in a layer on the bottom, and stirring or swirling after adding all the sulphuric acid may cause the solutions to mix and heat up suddenly. I would advice stirring while pouring the sulphuric acid into the water. (2) Another possibility I can think of is that the precipitate is lead sulphate. It is soluble in concentrated sulphuric acid, but very insoluble in water or dilute sulphuric acid so it would crash out when you dilute the concentrated acid. However, I don't think lead is a common component of silver alloys, and the candleholder doesn't seem to contain many (if any) soldered joints, so the amount of precipitate you observed seems to be too much for it to be lead sulphate. So, my money is on hypothesis nr 1. Would be interesting if you could figure out what the precipitate is and let us know.

@Jpw1776

2 жыл бұрын

Is it Possible to do this same process with old PCB's?

@sreetips

2 жыл бұрын

Silver sulfate

Thank you sir! That was a very nice video, maybe one of your best in my book. All the filming and editing you do for us, thanks once more.

You sure come up with some great ideas. What a sweet wee bar.I must have had at least a dozen new subs mentioning you sent them today and a bunch over the last week since your last post. Thank you very much my dear friend.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Nice!

You are my teacher I most respect you, and God bless you. Thanks for this video.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Thank you. I’d like to develop this a little more to get a good yield. I think it can get just as good yield as nitric can. Just have to tweak it some.

Love the skull and crossbones on the sugar🤣🤣👍. As Mary Poppins says" a spoonful of sugar makes the silver fall down, the sugar fall down"

@joerowland607

4 жыл бұрын

Works with Karo syrup too.

@ic_trab

4 жыл бұрын

Probably has it on there so it is no longer considered "food grade" as it has been used in an environment where it can get contaminated.

Brilliant. You just always amaze me and are entertaining at the same time as being a teacher of sorts.

I agree! Need to go to the grocery store for some lunch supplies. Good video👍

That was very cool! I don't know why it smoked so much when I just tried it... but it was an amazing amount of smoke. Totally overwhelmed my ventilation. Just a word of warning to everyone else! I don't know if my silver was that dirty, or the drain cleaner was that old... but it turned black as night and smoked for 2 hours. Then it went white as snow when I added it to the distilled water after cooling down. But 2 hours of nasty bad, very dangerous smoke... be warned! Thanks again Sreetips!

@johnlintorn6768

4 жыл бұрын

Did it work for you in the end?

I'd need a fume hood if I ate that many raw veggies at one time.

@scottcampbell7944

3 жыл бұрын

If you just get rid of the cheese you will be eating completely healthy.

@donaldhoot7741

3 жыл бұрын

@@scottcampbell7944 Uhuh sure!

@AshleyReneeKuntz

3 жыл бұрын

This is the best comment ever

WOW WOW WOW 🤯🤯🤯 THIS HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST VIDEOS IVE SEEN IN QUITE A WHILE 😎👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Wish I had a set up like yours..... I'd definitely be doing this for myself.

I gave a slight against you before but I retract it and praise you for your work helping new miners. Thank you

Thanks for showing your lunch (in addition to all the interesting chemistry as usual). One of the great things about the personality you show in these videos is that you exude personal discipline.

@ryansimpson3074

2 жыл бұрын

And discipline is key to achieving success.

I’m glad you have made this video for us that don’t have a lot of access to nitric acid and all the equipment. Great video Streetips

@snipersquad100

4 жыл бұрын

But most of us who don't have access to nitric acid don't have access to sulphuric acid either.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

John, the misdeeds of a few ruin it for the many. I bought the concentrated sulfuric acid drain opener over the counter at Ace Hardware. Same with the lye. Sugar and sea salt at the grocery store.

@snipersquad100

4 жыл бұрын

@@sreetips But I'm in the UK, you cant bye anything stronger then piss without a licence.

@peterwilliams5631

4 жыл бұрын

@@snipersquad100 Hi John, you can buy 96% Drain cleaner in the UK

@snipersquad100

4 жыл бұрын

@@peterwilliams5631 Where Peter?

Great video with close-ups and details. I love watching you produce 999 fine silver.

I really appreciate all of the information that you share

Thank you sreetips. In norway its not legal to own nitric acid for privat use. I really wanted to try refining silver at home and you showed me a way. Cheers.

The white precipitate is silver sulfate, as the concentration of your solution was oversaturated👍🏻

@jean-francoisavon62

3 жыл бұрын

Yup. This is why the Hoke book said to dilute it in AMPLE quantity of water. Solubility in water 0.57 g/100 mL (0 °C) 0.69 g/100 mL (10 °C) 0.83 g/100 mL (25 °C) 0.96 g/100 mL (40 °C) 1.33 g/100 mL (100 °C)[2]

@AirForce15A

3 жыл бұрын

So your saying there was too much water used?

@mcwolfbeast

2 жыл бұрын

@@AirForce15A No... instead not enough water. the oversaturated solution when being poured into the water still resulted in a total amount of silver sulfate that was more than his 700-odd (and later 1200-odd) ml of distilled water could hold, so it precipitated out.

@brandonmccullah710

2 жыл бұрын

@@frankroberts9320 I thought he checked it for copper with 10% amonia is this an unreliable method to test for copper sulfate?

@frankroberts9320

2 жыл бұрын

@@brandonmccullah710 That test must be done in neutral or basic pH. An acidic solution will simply neutralize the ammonia. I usually run this test with 25% NH4OH, which tends to force the pH >7.

Thanks for the new book purchase

When you pulled out the book to show your facts is when you had me sold. Thanks for the video. im about to refine 13.8 pounds of silver plate. ill be refering to your video alot.

@sreetips

Ай бұрын

I didn’t use silver plated material, I did this experiment with solid sterling silver. If you use silver plated material then the yield will be very low. My guess is not even an ounce of silver from 13.8 pounds of silver plate. Plus, a lot of toxic sulfuric acid waste that must be treated prior to disposal. Hot sulfuric is very dangerous. It will burn a hole in your skin if any gets on you. One guy reported that it makes an open wound, very deep, that doesn’t heal well even after thinking all the acid was rinsed and washed away. The risk is too high to try this on silver plate. Especially if you’re new to this. Not a good place for a beginner to start.

This looks like one to try. Thank you! 👍🏻🍺

Well Mr. Sreetips, as far as i know, the silver sulfate is little soluble in water, just like the silver chloride (maybe a bit more soluble than the second one). So, when you took a concentrated sulfuric solution and diluted it on distilled water, part of the silver sulfate precipitaded out.

@TheBlessedMeek

2 жыл бұрын

Was temperature not a factor as well?

Wonderful! Love your videos as always

Judging from the color there might be more other metals in the bar then you may suspect. An xrf test would be a nice way to find out for sure.

Wish I could have learned metallurgical chemistry like this, guess it's not too late to start.😁

@mikeconnery4652

Жыл бұрын

Yup never too late

Great work!! Your are hands down my favorite channel! I have literally tons of old misc electronics. I wanted to start processing stuff but I don't have a fume hood and I'm super freaked out with dealing with nitric acid. I have a liter if nitric but I have not used it yet due to not having a fume hood. I was thinking of building a tiny shed out in my backyard so I can turn it into a lab. The only thing is it get so cold in the winter months. I'm still a newbi but I'm trying really hard to be good so I want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row before continuing on. The other problem I'm having is because I'm not processing any old electronics so they keep piling up. I was wondering if by chance you could do a video to demonstrate an inexpensive way to get started?

@sreetips

3 жыл бұрын

I don’t process much electronics for precious metals. The yields are too low.

@AshleyReneeKuntz

3 жыл бұрын

Those loafers are hella nice Mr. Tips

@AshleyReneeKuntz

3 жыл бұрын

Those are my initials! A.K.

Chemicals so easy to come by to get silver purified to near .999 fine! Very cool!! Have a GREAT Day!!!

Love your videos Sreetips! Thank you brother

A man that owns a hard copy of Refining precious metal wastes by C.M Hoke is a hero IMHO.

@undersiege3402

4 жыл бұрын

calm morrison hoke? want a copy?

@bencapobianco2045

4 жыл бұрын

The only problem with the hard cover of that book is by the time you refine enough gold to afford it you won’t need it anymore

@undersiege3402

4 жыл бұрын

@@bencapobianco2045 a digital copy

Oh man the lunch looks AWESOME! MAKING ME hungry!

Sreetips keepin healthy! Lunch looks good! Lots of fiber. 😉👍

lol, so last year I played around with silver in nitric acid then winter came. I learned what happens when silver gets to cold when dissolved in nitric acid. I figured that sulfuric acid considering how hot it gets would give me a better result than it turning to silver Nitrate crystals,,,, I was wrong, lol, but it was fun and interesting figuring out how to fix it so now I’m done for the year till it’s warmer. Thanks sreetips!

Won’t sea salt have trace iodine in it? I would think kosher salt would be closer to being just NaCl.

The precipitate you're getting might very well be silver sulfate, which is soluble in sufuric acid, but poorly soluble in water. That's why it came out of solution when you diluted the acid. You can turn the solid silver sulfate into silver oxide just by mixing it thoroughly with sodium hydroxide the same way you did with the silver chloride.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Really? I had no idea. I just did a video on getting the silver chloride from the sulfate. It's uploading right now. If that's the case then a totally new video is in order. I'll do side by side refinings of some sterling flatware. One in nitric and one in sulfuric. Max yield from both is the goal. Oh well.

@craoun6116

4 жыл бұрын

@@sreetips Very nice! I'm looking forward to seeing how it turned out!

@jerrykingsley6703

4 жыл бұрын

@@sreetips I am an amateur at best, but I immediately thought of what craoun said. My thinking was, the sulfuric was still 44 degrees c, when it hit the distilled water, the colder temperature combined with the fact it's water forced some silver out of solution.

@johnlintorn6768

4 жыл бұрын

2Ag + 2H2SO4 ---> Ag2SO4 + SO2 + 2H20 Ag2SO4 is hardly soluble in H20 at room temp. So that precipitate is going to be Ag2SO4. You need to heat to 100degC for a solubility of 1.33g /litre. You could thermally decompose the Silver Sulfate. Ag2SO4 + Heat ---> 2Ag + SO2 +O2

@jerrykingsley6703

4 жыл бұрын

@@johnlintorn6768 i am searching for a source that can teach me the chemistry behind everything. It seems what you said is what I said, just exhibiting a much greater understanding of the material. are there any books on the subject that you've read that you felt helped everything 'click' together? I would like to start a dialogue with you about a few roadblocks I have hit. If you are interested and can provide contact information, it would be greatly appreciated

Love your hat mate. I was on Patrol Boats for 8 years.

@sreetips

Жыл бұрын

I served on two destroyers and a fast frigate. The Navy was good to me. And I to it.

Thanks for all your videos very helpful

Solubility of silver sulfate is about 1 gram per 100 ml of water, 1.3 liter could hold about 10 grams which is consistent with the resulting button. Take the white salt that crashed out of the sulfuric acid and boil it in another liter of distilled water, then test it with some chloride salt. I think you will be surprised.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

1.33g per 100ml at 100C. Thanks Goran, had to look it up. I figured some of the silver got hung up in that precipitate. Plus, it too is light sensitive.

@Shad0wBoxxer

4 жыл бұрын

I was wondering if it it was super saturated silver basically lol

@buggsy5

3 жыл бұрын

@@sreetips Yep, and only 0.96 grams at 40 degrees C. That precipitate is almost 100% silver sulfate., with probably a trace of copper sulfate. Copper sulfate has a much higher solubility in water, so very little of it will precipitate during the dilution step. It might be easier to just pour off the mixed metal solution and just dump it into your stock pot. You could then continue the processing with the almost pure silver sulfate precipitate.

Did you ever discover what the first strange precipitate was.thank you for your teachings I have studied hard and have my own lab now and am processing my gold from my lode claim I owe it to you.listen to this man if you want to learn how but you have to put in much effort and study.

@sreetips

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, it was silver sulfate. Just add hydrochloric to silver sulfate and it turns to silver chloride - like magic!

Thank you very much sir, for your efforts and knowledge. Take care

i just want to informally say thankyou, for your knowledge , your kind demeanor, your excellent video quality and your no-nonsense constan commitment to science. Everything I have learned I have learned from you. my girlfriend and i joke around about you all the time. WWSD

@sreetips

3 жыл бұрын

Cool deal, thank you!

@mikeharris9097

3 жыл бұрын

@@sreetips do you believe its a good idea to buy one of those melted down computer pin bars that are 300grams for 45 $ on ebay to practice purification?

@sreetips

3 жыл бұрын

@@mikeharris9097 absolutely not a good idea. Total rip off

@roneckler9937

3 жыл бұрын

Those bars are most likely 99.9% base metals with only .1% Au. That wouldn't even yield you your $45.00 Back you spent on it. Including the cost of chemicals you would need to refine it. :)

Sreetips.. This video really perked you up! Glad to see you enjoying your hobby at a joyful level again! Don’t make me worry 😉 ✌️PT

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

What really made me happy was doing the experiment before hand without that pesky camera looking over my shoulder. I think this made for a better video because I knew what to expect. Many of my videos are shot in the raw; you're seeing me do it for the first time ever with out any knowledge of what to expect.

Hi! Just wondering - where did you come up with “Sreetips”? Love your videos! 👍

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

A variation of my last name (Peters) spelled backwards.

@taino1642

4 жыл бұрын

My girlfriend hears sweet ti#! Love the channel.

@BBRDAKING

3 жыл бұрын

@@sreetips tried this and my solution was black

Damn Chemistry is so entertaining if you have the brain for it I just can't get enough thank you sreetips I really enjoy your vlogs

Very educational , thank you for sharing

7:13 you should melt that watch!

@strykergames2195

4 жыл бұрын

i agree :)

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

That's my new (really old) 14k automatic Omega Pie Pan that my wife found for me $100 at a sale. The Longines will go to my son-in-law Randy.

You need to do a chess set that one side is pure silver and the other is pure gold.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

One side pure silver. The other side is 25% pure gold alloyed with 75% streling silver. Then encrusted with gem stones.

@ut000bs

4 жыл бұрын

@@sreetips The silver king weighs 10 troy oz. plus gems, etc. Gothic-style.

Cool to watch .Cheers mate from Australia 🇦🇺 👌

I likw your vids really good i have watched an re watch some of them knowlage is an amazeing good at explaining a natural teacher

Too bad you didn't weight the initial amount of metal you started from. If you aim is to recover silver, you should keep the first white precipitate... what is mainly Ag2SO4. It is possible that Ag2SO4 is quite soluble into the concentrated H2SO4 by complexation or due to the lack of water, but crashes out of solution when dilluted. Copper sulfate remains soluble and this is observed all allong your process. To me the use of NaCl to make HCl via in situ reaction with H2SO4 and precipitation of AgCl is useless... You can start immediately from demi-water washed solid Ag2SO4 to the next step. Ag2SO4 (s) + 2 NaOH (aq) --> 2 AgOH (s) + Na2SO4 (aq) 2AgOH (s) --> Ag2O + H2O (via heating) C6H12O6 + Ag2O --> 2 Ag + C6H12O7 (gluconic acid as Na gluconate) (via heat and basic NaOH media). I hope this will help you increase the yield, efficiency and reduce the wastes. PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone)

@parcydwr

Жыл бұрын

That is a good reply. I am trying to figure out a process where I can use easily available chemicals for recovering some silver plate. You say the copper sulphate remains soluble and this is observed all along your process. How is that being observed? In your method you say.... 2AgOH (s) --> Ag2O + H2O (via heating). Do you simply melt the solid with heat and the water comes off as water vapour? From reading your reaction I guess that is what the process is. I presume the silver oxide could then be added to the silver oxide he precipitated out from the rest of his solution before the conversion to silver metal so all of the silver is recovered. I am wondering if the sulphuric acid and silver reaction would work if the sulphuric acid was less concentrated? I have about 10 litres of sulphuric acid I recovered from scrap batteries and wondering if I can use it. I realised this morning I have a battery hydrometer so can measure its density and maybe give me a clue of its concentration.

@philouzlouis2042

Жыл бұрын

@@parcydwr Hi Robert Smith, thank you. The Cu (copper sulfate - CuSO4.xH2O is blue like Cu(2+) what is dissolved ion (into water)... the dehydrated form is white and recolor blue as soon as it catches moisture from the air or liquid water). That color is observed into Sreetips video process into the collecting "recycling" drum. Copper is often joined to Silver to make harder and cheaper alloys. Silver and copper are two "precious" or "near precious" metals and they display a special property to have a high oxydation (électro-)potential... as such they oxydise their ion against glucose if hot and in presence of a base (oxydoredox potential can express in acidic (H(+)) media or basic (OH(-)) with different processes and results... In the present case copper sets a characteristic precipitate of Cu2O red (or sometimes a copper mirror) and silver a characteristic mirror or grey powder. In general aldehydes (reductible) can react to form the related acid... here gluconic acid. Ag(+) + 1e(-) --> Ag(0) (silver mirror or dust) Cu(2+) + 1e(-) --> Cu(1+) (like into Cu2O see Fehling test for sucrose/aldoses) Cu(1+) + 1e(-) --> Cu(0) HO-CH2-CHOH-CHOH-CHOH-CHOH-CH=O --> HO-CH2-CHOH-CHOH-CHOH-CHOH-C(=O)-OH (here only the aldehyd group is oxydised to a carboxylic one and it passes from +1 oxydation state to +3 oxydation state) The AgOH turns into Ag2O suspension/precipitate from "maturation" (concentration and heat of solution). Paradoxaly Ag2O is specifical as it is not wel linked to its oxygen and it will set it free upon heating to live "native" silver and pure oxygen... this happens also with Gold whose oxide is also unstable and even explosive (set O2 free explosively from heat). 2 Ag2O -heat-> 2 Ag2 + O2(g) I will reply a bit further/deeper later about the process of Sreetips soon. PHZ (PHILOU Zrealone from the Science Madness forum)

Forget metal refining... 7:40 Sreetips in with that healthy diet flex!!

That lunch was so yummy looking; fruits, veggies and cheese. Put a batch up on Ebay. :)

*Sneaks in and takes Sreetips lunch.....* it looks fantastic!

Good to see some fresh content. I believe the white precipitate was just some silver sulfate dropping out of solution after you had lowered the ph by adding water. You may need to use more acid, dilute less or simply drop the chloride out before dilution. It should redissolve in hot water tho allowing you to convert the rest.. Id be interested to see if it works with diluted sulphuric or with drain cleaner containing inhibitors as this is what the public can buy in the UK (where Nitric is hard to source).

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

I think sulfuric can be concentrated by boiling, but I've never tried it. I tried dilute sulfuric on some cement silver once and it did not do well. That's what struck me when I read the book. I had never tried concentrated sulfuric, only dilute and it was a bust. But as you can see, sure enough, hot concentrated sulfuric will dissolve silver. I had people who find it difficult to get nitric in mind when I did this experiment.

the white precipitate is silver sulfate, which does not well disolve in water.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Got it, I'll redissolve it in sulfuric acid, then pour it into more water to get more of the silver. Thank you!

When I was doing this, after I put the acid into the water I left it for a few days and I built up a thick layer of that precipitate

How do you know how much salt is needed to precipitate the silver in the solution? And is there a test to see if there is any remaining silver in the solution when the silver is precipitated?

That white precipitate is silver sulfate ;). It tends to only wan't to dissolve in concentrated H2so4, once diluted with water the solubility goes down.

I think your unknown white precipitate (11:00) is Lead Sulphate, Strangely enough Lead Sulphate is extremely insoluble in water which is why you use sulphuric acid to protect from lead contamination, but lead sulphate is fairly soluble in concentrated sulphuric acid. I had a bunch of PbSO4 contamination forming crappy suspensions and gels in a batch of copper sulphate i'd bought.

The precipitate is silver sulfate. It's poorly soluble in cold water, about 8 g/100mL, goes way up in solubility to around 80 g/100mL in .10% molar sulfuric acid/water. Adding a small amount of sulfuric acid to the beaker and hearing it would have dissolved most of that white stuff.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Add a little sulfuric, I'll have to make a note of that thank you.

very nice!!! shiny..... you got a lot really right if it was just that candle holder.

I wonder if the buffers added in the drain cleaner affect the reaction

Back in the day, I used to work in a photographic mini lab. We were told that our depleted chemistry contained silver from all the 35mm films that had been through it. The value of that silver helped to pay for the processing of the used chemistry so it could be safely disposed of. It'd be great if you could make a video to show how much silver can be extracted from the chemistry and the process for doing it

@sreetips

Ай бұрын

I have a single video on recovery of silver from X-ray films posted on my channel.

Mr sreetips you made my day!! I have a pile of ~7Kg of scrap silver without processing because of the difficulty to find Nitric Acid around here and the online options being expensive to the extreme. But Muriatic and Sulfuric I have Gallons and Gallons and Gallons. Depending on how cold it gets today, I will start my batch. My only concern is with the quantity of silver I have and optimize the process. Possibly I need one extra waste bucket before I start to avoid surprises. THANK YOU

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Be prepared to deal with that precipitate. It ties up some of the silver as silver sulfate. Insoluble in water. Plus roll the pieces of silver very thin and cut them up before putting in concentrated sulfuric. Thick pieces of silver will probably take a long time to dissolve. Don't boil sulfuric in the kitchen. You'll fill the air with the stench of sulfur!

@Ziegen-Sauger

4 жыл бұрын

sreetips thank you!!! Have you found what is that precipitate at the end? Did you process it somehow? I have my shop/lab for my computer sciences and metal experiments 😊

The precipitate is silver sulphate powder. Silver sulphate is insoluble in water and the dilutuon of silver sulphate and sulfuric acid in water causes the silver sulphate to precipitate out somewhat.

very interesting thanks for sharing this method.

Thanks for your videos, did my first CPU’s in sulfuric acid and peroxide and I got gold!!!

I have a fun challenge for you. High purity Bismuth! Many places that sell Bismuth seem to claim 4 or even 5 9's but if you try and grow bismuth crystals they may either never form properly or be gray and dull in luster. I tried this myself and so far it seems electrolysis is an option but it is soooo slow.

@sreetips

Жыл бұрын

Sorry, I don’t know anything about bismuth.

it is best to let it cool first for one main reason, pgm's can turn to sulphates and drop back out when it cools. Pgm sulphates can also precipitate upon dilution. I've experimented with this and its interesting. Pgm's will also drop out fully when adding sodium chloride. It can get complex very fast, but a great cheap way to remove base metals from a large bulk of material. Most interesting part is the copper will be attacked last if pgms are present, all noble metals seem to go up into solution first which yields some really clean pour offs early in the process. You say large amounts of waste, ehh depends on how crazy you get rinsing otherwise waste amount isn't so bad after you filter copper and other base metals off using iron, just don't forget your zinc and iron after neutralizing the acid. However you can recycle the acid if you're clever and it greatly reduces waste other than rinsing. i've found it to be a useful method as well to separate say rhodium from platinum or ruthenium from palladium.

Starting my metal refining journey with help from this video, wish me luck in my eBay endeavours!

@sreetips

Жыл бұрын

Start small to get the feel for it. Resist the urge to go all in with a hundred grams of karat gold. Instead start with just five grams to see how it goes.

@IronBridge1781

Жыл бұрын

@@sreetips Will do, thanks for the advice.

That’s silver sulfate falling out of solution. It’s solubility in cold/room temperature water is fairly low, no where near the solubility of silver nitrate. Bringing it back up to boil should bring all that back into solution, then while it’s hot is the time to do the chloride drop. If I remember correctly the solubility at 100 degrees C is about 1.5 grams per 100ml of water. Whereas in cold water it is about 0.4 or 0.5 grams per 100ml.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Video of this exact process uploading as I write.

Awesome video, thanks😎

I do believe I’ve added tooo much lye, when I added sugar nothing turned, not it’s just a black liquid. I’m assuming I’ll have to restart and cook it in nitric acid again?

XRF would give you a definitive answer, but that white precipitate has to be either (1) a contaminant in your sulfuric acid, or (2) a salt of one of the metals from your sterling, so a silver, copper, tin, etc sulfate / oxide/ hydrate. Likely contaminants in drain cleaner sulfuric acid include a corrosion inhibitor like Rhodine 31A, which can crash out when neutralized (you might try pouring a few mL of the acid into 10 mL of water and see if you get a similar precipitate volume). Silver sulfate is a white salt that is barely soluble in neutral water (1.3g/100mL at 100C), but it's light sensitive like silver nitrate, and the missing silver's mass would show up if you can get a yield on one of those runs. Most copper sulfates are vivid blue and highly soluble. Tin, nickel, cadmium, or zinc sulfates all seem too soluble (33g/100mL, 65g/100mL, 76g/100mL, and 57g/100mL respectively). A tin or zinc oxide seems like a possibility too, depending on the sterling.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

It was silver sulfate.

Hi. Are there any particular smells you have to develop a tolerance to when dealing with the chemicals and reactions you use in your silver, gold and platinum group metals refining operations? Thank you.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

I do all reactions inside the fume hood. Those vapors get vented away from me so I don't smell anything, when the fume hood works properly.

Glad you done this, I have said that for ages. 👍👍👍👍

@user-dv2yu3uk1y

3 жыл бұрын

隨身火炎炎炎藍莓派

Gonna try this chloride conversion. Got some silver from some gold filled scrap i ran. Really curious how much it will be

I've seen other youtubers "purify" silver plated items through electrolysis. Their final products look like they have a large amount of copper impurities. However, I think that might be a good starting point for using this process with a lot less volume and a lot less waste. I think it might be a good idea for another one of your videos to follow up on the video you did last year on refining silver plated items.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

I've got a tube full of silver plated stuff. I'm saving it for when silver gets up around $100. But I could break some out and do a video on it with these chemicals. Good idea.

Sreetips, how would you go about dissolving the magnetite leftover from the shaker table of an Alaska placer operation? A friend of mine has brought me a bucket of his black sands and I have had some luck using HCL and HP, to dissolve the base metals and then HCL and Clorox to dissolve the gold, and then precipitate with SMB. But, some of this material seems to be saturating the solution with Iron after crushing it to -20. It turns deep rust and when filtering, it plugs the filter with a sludge which is still somewhat magnetic. Do you know of any good way to dissolve the iron here so I can get at the good stuff? I see pretty good gold with a 60-100 power magnifying scope. I have avoided using Nitric Acid but was wondering if Geo's poor-mans Nitric acid/ Sulfuric acid process, (seen elsewhere on youtube), would be applicable. Maybe you could try a video on this.

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Dwight, I don't have much experience with this kind of material. But from what I understand you have very fine gold in black sand. If that's the case then I'd try a chlorine leach. If it were mine I'd put a small sample of the material in a bucket and add some HCl and bleach and let it sit for a week or so, adding small shots of bleach every day. Then check it with stannous and see what I get. If it were mine.

This was another great video

The problem with dumping the sea salt in without dissolving in water first is that it will also force precipitation of some of the copper sulfate. Also, once the silver chloride is precipitated, you should test the blue liquid to make sure all the silver has been precipitated.

@sreetips

3 жыл бұрын

I changed the process. I got a way better yield.

Great video!

Well, now I know why your silver electrolytes are blue colored keep learning I keep learning I love it

Can you show what to do in order to treat the waste water? Some of us might live in places where getting the drain cleaners is easier than ever dreaming of getting Nitric Acid. So this method is a viable way for us in poorer countries to reclaim silver from scrap and thrift stores.

love the lunch break

My guess for the white precipitate on crashing with water would be silver sulfate. Sterling is usually just silver and copper and the copper sulfate is probably pushing it out of solution as the temperature drops. Hope you didn't throw it out :)

@sreetips

4 жыл бұрын

Video on it uploading right now.

Great video.

I’m just started collecting silver last year and I’ve fallen in love with it. I love buying at the best price and the feeling of having ACTUAL money. As soon as I was told about your channel I went to work assembling my own precious metal processing work place. I am new to this so I was wondering if you had any advice for equipment and pouring molds along with any other wisdom. I would really appreciate anything you have to offer. Thank you and God bless P.S. I am currently attempting the method of silver refining in this video. I’ll let you know how that goes

@sreetips

2 жыл бұрын

Yes: buy a fume hood. No way to safely do these reactions with out a fume hood.

@kimberlynolz5725

2 жыл бұрын

How’d it go for u? I’m trying this method today

@charleslong4874

2 жыл бұрын

@@kimberlynolz5725 how did it work for you?

I giggle every time he says lye and sugar. I can’t help but think he’s saying *Lion Sugar* and the thought of that makes me laugh. 🦁🍭

I love that you had sugar labeled as a poison :')

The low solubility of your silver sulfate is being aggravated by the common ion effect. There is quite a bit of unreacted sulfuric acid and copper II sulfate in your solution. H2SO4 and CuSO4 are much more soluble than Ag2SO4. The water becomes so saturated with sulfate ions that it can't solvate any more. This pushes the solubility equilibrium of silver sulfate far to the left and crashes out Ag2SO4. The precipitate is very pure silver sulfate, which you might be able to take directly to silver oxide with NaOH. If that works, you might consider crashing out all the sulfate by adding an excess of sulfuric acid, filtering, then going straight to the lye step.

Will this process work for silver contacts?

So I had white precipitate drop out after using sulphuric acid Roto drain cleaner to dissolve a sterling silver spoon. I saw the comments on it was silver sulphate, so I added it to boiling water and no dissolve happens, so I drained the water and let dry. Then I added sulphuric acid and still did not dissolve. When dry it has reflective shiny crystal glitter in it like a diamond. Any thoughts on this?

@sreetips

2 жыл бұрын

Hot sulfuric should dissolve silver sulfate. Then I let it cool, and slowly add hydrochloric directly to the silver sulfate solution. It spatters and creates much heat so best to do it in an over sized beaker.