Dear Ganoskiners: I used nitric acid to dissolve the silver. Once the
silver is fully dissolved I used sodium sulphite to precipitate the
silver but it took quite a lot of cleaning before I could get normal
salt free water. Is there a quicker way to get rid of remaining salt?
I would appreciate any info. Thanks.
Y.T.
I used nitric acid to dissolve the silver. Once the silver is fully dissolved I used sodium sulphite to precipitate the silver but it took quite a lot of cleaning before I could get normal salt free water. Is there a quicker way to get rid of remaining salt? I would appreciate any info. Thanks;
G’day. You should have used ordinary table salt solution (sodium
CHLORIDE) to precipitate the silver chloride from the silver nitrate
you made, adding just enough to precipitate all the silver as
chloride… I don’t know what you added the nitric acid to, but
excess salt solution can be washed off the work in ordinary tap
water… The white precipitate of silver chloride turns a purple
colour in sunlight, but it can be dissolved in sodium cyanide
solution, and the silver metal recovered by adding zinc pieces, or
by plating on to stainless steel sheet, from which it can easily be
peeled. Warning: do NOT add any acid to cyanide as a very poisonous
gas (hydrogen cyanide) will be generated.
Cheers for now,
John Burgess; @John_Burgess2 of Mapua, Nelson NZ