Rhodanide
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Cadmium metal from NiCd batteries, and conversion to soluble salt. + Hazards
In my quest to make all the Oxalates that I can, Cadmium is next!
Is it correct that NiCd batteries contain a perforated foil of pure Cd metal, or is it a salt? Also, how would I turn the metal into a salt, if it is
in metallic form? What acid works best? One last thing - anything I should know about Cd besides its toxicity before I go to work with it?
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ninhydric1
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Magpie made a (successful, sorry Magpie) attempt at extracting Cd from batteries in the following thread:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=4676
[Edited on 3-7-2018 by ninhydric1]
The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.
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Magpie
lab constructor
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What do you mean “attempt”? I did it.
The single most important condition for a successful synthesis is good mixing - Nicodem
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elementcollector1
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I've done it as well. The cadmium inside is a gray, slightly clumpy powder pasted onto a steel support mesh, and needs to be scraped off vigorously
with a screwdriver. I'm not sure how pure it actually is, but dissolving it in an acid and plating it out again at very low voltage (to avoid iron
plating, etc.) would probably give a reasonably pure metal product.
Personally, I used H2SO4 and got about the same color as Magpie's cadmium nitrate. I don't quite recall how it behaves in HCl, but I've no reason to
suspect any of the three main acids are any better or worse than the others in this case.
Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
Next in Line: Nd
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j_sum1
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This is on my list -- I have an old nicad drill battery that no longer holds charge that I picked up from somewhere. I have not yet looked up how
these are constructed or what steps would need to be taken to extract the Cd from it in its current state.
I'll take a look at the thread you linked, ninhydric.
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