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...
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.
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.
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!
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
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.
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... 🤔
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
@@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.
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
@@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
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.
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.
@@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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
@@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)
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!
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.
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 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 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?
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. :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Typically I make a salad dressing from Acetic Acid, Sodium Chloride, Piperine and Oleic Acid. Use a 3:1 Ratio of Oleic to Acetic Acid, then Sodium Chloride and Piperine to taste. Yummy.
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.
If I recall correctly silver sulfate is much more soluble in acids than in distilled water (.83g / 100ml @ 25c) so the white precipitate should hopefully just be the silver sulfate. Not a chemist, just a guess. Love your vids by the way! Edit: the sciencemadness wiki entry seems to agree
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?
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.
Thanks for an awesome video. You just gained a new subscriber! So would this process work for keyboard mylars as well? The only concern I can think of would be if the mylar itself would break down in the boiling H2SO4. Any thoughts?
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 :)
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.
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?
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
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...
This looks like a good way of handling it. Just add the salt without decanting and let the alchemy do the work.
What would the happen if there was copper in that solution? How would you handle that?
@@lukebaehr3851 There was copper in solution
What about mixing the AgSO4 directly with NaOH and do the procedure like it was AgCl ?
That might work
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.
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.
Flexing...😂😂😂😂
@@AppliedCryogenics Work in the cryogenic industry?
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!🙏
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!
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'd need a fume hood if I ate that many raw veggies at one time.
If you just get rid of the cheese you will be eating completely healthy.
@@scottcampbell7944 Uhuh sure!
This is the best comment ever
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 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.
Cool video REETIPS! Thanks for sharing that process with us. Aloha😉
You are my teacher I most respect you, and God bless you. Thanks for this video.
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.
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.
Great video with close-ups and details. I love watching you produce 999 fine silver.
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... 🤔
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
But most of us who don't have access to nitric acid don't have access to sulphuric acid either.
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.
@@sreetips But I'm in the UK, you cant bye anything stronger then piss without a licence.
@@snipersquad100 Hi John, you can buy 96% Drain cleaner in the UK
@@peterwilliams5631 Where Peter?
I agree! Need to go to the grocery store for some lunch supplies. Good video👍
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.
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!
Did it work for you in the end?
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.
Is it Possible to do this same process with old PCB's?
Silver sulfate
Brilliant. You just always amaze me and are entertaining at the same time as being a teacher of sorts.
Thanks for the new book purchase
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.
And discipline is key to achieving success.
This looks like one to try. Thank you! 👍🏻🍺
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.
Nice!
I really appreciate all of the information that you share
The white precipitate is silver sulfate, as the concentration of your solution was oversaturated👍🏻
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]
So your saying there was too much water used?
@@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.
@@frankroberts9320 I thought he checked it for copper with 10% amonia is this an unreliable method to test for copper sulfate?
@@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.
Wish I could have learned metallurgical chemistry like this, guess it's not too late to start.😁
Yup never too late
I gave a slight against you before but I retract it and praise you for your work helping new miners. Thank you
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.
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.
Was temperature not a factor as well?
Love your videos Sreetips! Thank you brother
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"
Works with Karo syrup too.
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.
Oh man the lunch looks AWESOME! MAKING ME hungry!
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?
I don’t process much electronics for precious metals. The yields are too low.
Those loafers are hella nice Mr. Tips
Those are my initials! A.K.
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.
Very educational , thank you for sharing
Won’t sea salt have trace iodine in it? I would think kosher salt would be closer to being just NaCl.
A man that owns a hard copy of Refining precious metal wastes by C.M Hoke is a hero IMHO.
calm morrison hoke? want a copy?
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
@@bencapobianco2045 a digital copy
Wonderful! Love your videos as always
Sreetips keepin healthy! Lunch looks good! Lots of fiber. 😉👍
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.
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.
@@sreetips Very nice! I'm looking forward to seeing how it turned out!
@@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.
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
@@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
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.
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.
I was wondering if it it was super saturated silver basically lol
@@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.
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
Chemicals so easy to come by to get silver purified to near .999 fine! Very cool!!
Have a GREAT Day!!!
Hi! Just wondering - where did you come up with “Sreetips”? Love your videos! 👍
A variation of my last name (Peters) spelled backwards.
My girlfriend hears sweet ti#!
Love the channel.
@@sreetips tried this and my solution was black
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
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.
Thanks for all your videos very helpful
Thank you very much sir, for your efforts and knowledge. Take care
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.
Yes, it was silver sulfate. Just add hydrochloric to silver sulfate and it turns to silver chloride - like magic!
7:13 you should melt that watch!
i agree :)
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.
Love your hat mate. I was on Patrol Boats for 8 years.
I served on two destroyers and a fast frigate. The Navy was good to me. And I to it.
the white precipitate is silver sulfate, which does not well disolve in water.
Got it, I'll redissolve it in sulfuric acid, then pour it into more water to get more of the silver. Thank you!
You need to do a chess set that one side is pure silver and the other is pure gold.
One side pure silver. The other side is 25% pure gold alloyed with 75% streling silver. Then encrusted with gem stones.
@@sreetips The silver king weighs 10 troy oz. plus gems, etc. Gothic-style.
Forget metal refining... 7:40 Sreetips in with that healthy diet flex!!
*Sneaks in and takes Sreetips lunch.....* it looks fantastic!
I literately go tp sleep watching your videos
Thank you sir
very interesting thanks for sharing this method.
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)
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.
@@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)
Cool to watch .Cheers mate from Australia 🇦🇺 👌
very nice!!! shiny..... you got a lot really right if it was just that candle holder.
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
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
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!
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.
Add a little sulfuric, I'll have to make a note of that thank you.
Glad you done this, I have said that for ages. 👍👍👍👍
隨身火炎炎炎藍莓派
Beautiful silver bar
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.
Thanks for your videos, did my first CPU’s in sulfuric acid and peroxide and I got gold!!!
That lunch was so yummy looking; fruits, veggies and cheese. Put a batch up on Ebay. :)
I love that you had sugar labeled as a poison :')
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
Cool deal, thank you!
@@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?
@@mikeharris9097 absolutely not a good idea. Total rip off
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. :)
love the lunch break
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.
Great video.
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.
I changed the process. I got a way better yield.
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.
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.
Sorry, I don’t know anything about bismuth.
Terimakasih kawan ! Vidio ini samgat bagus .
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).
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.
Nice job
Refiners Bible, thank you sir!!
Well, now I know why your silver electrolytes are blue colored keep learning I keep learning I love it
That's my kind of meal right there!
Typically I make a salad dressing from Acetic Acid, Sodium Chloride, Piperine and Oleic Acid. Use a 3:1 Ratio of Oleic to Acetic Acid, then Sodium Chloride and Piperine to taste. Yummy.
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.
Video of this exact process uploading as I write.
I need someone like you in NYC
Awesome video, thanks😎
If I recall correctly silver sulfate is much more soluble in acids than in distilled water (.83g / 100ml @ 25c) so the white precipitate should hopefully just be the silver sulfate.
Not a chemist, just a guess.
Love your vids by the way!
Edit: the sciencemadness wiki entry seems to agree
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?
Great video!
Gonna try this chloride conversion. Got some silver from some gold filled scrap i ran. Really curious how much it will be
These videos are so addictive. I want to refine silver.
I wonder if the buffers added in the drain cleaner affect the reaction
Starting my metal refining journey with help from this video, wish me luck in my eBay endeavours!
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.
@@sreetips Will do, thanks for the advice.
Thanks for an awesome video. You just gained a new subscriber! So would this process work for keyboard mylars as well? The only concern I can think of would be if the mylar itself would break down in the boiling H2SO4. Any thoughts?
Sorry, I’ve never tried keyboard mylars. No experience
No it would not. It dissolves the mylar and ocne you pour it in water the mylar crashes out
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 :)
Video on it uploading right now.
✔✔✔ Great video colleague, I liked 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.
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?
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
Yes: buy a fume hood. No way to safely do these reactions with out a fume hood.
How’d it go for u? I’m trying this method today
@@kimberlynolz5725 how did it work for you?