Have about one ounce of AgO2 and want to recover the Ag. My thoughts were to dissolve the AgO2 in HNO3 and then precipitate the Ag with Cu.
I am new to dealing with AgO2 and am open to ideas. Is there any respectable amount of Ag in there?
Thanks
Do you mean Ag2O?Volanschemia - 2-4-2015 at 00:22
It should work I think. I haven't done much with silver either but the theory looks sound.
Ag2O + 2HNO3 = 2AgNO3 + H2O
2AgNO3 + Cu = Cu(NO3)2 + 2Ag
You can do an equation to determine to theoretical maximum yield of Silver from one ounce of Silver(I) Oxide. That will give you a good indication of
how much Ag you will get.
[Edited on 2-4-2015 by TheAustralianScientist]woelen - 2-4-2015 at 01:10
Try adding aqueous H2O2 to the Ag2O. H2O2 reduces the oxide:
Ag2O + H2O2 --> 2Ag + H2O + O2
Sometimes H2O2 (quite surprisingly) acts as a reductor.
It is important that the Ag2O is powdered very finely, otherwise a thin layer of Ag may block further access to Ag2O, deeper inside the particles.unionised - 2-4-2015 at 02:48
Well, you could do it the hard way, or you could put it in a tin lid and heat it over a candle flame. Profikiskery - 3-4-2015 at 21:22
I apologize...Ag2o is what I meant indeed. I have stumbled across a way to remove silver plate using only H2o as an electrolyte in a cell. The results
are quite intriguing. The Ag turns colloidal in about 90 seconds. So far have yielded about 7.5 grams of what I think is Ag2o. There is a lot going on
in there I am not sure of, but feel positive about the results.
I can't believe tap water and a little current is stripping off the Ag but it is!! I think I will stick with my original plan and see what I can
learn.
The candle and tin lid is a novel idea....but I think I might just end up with a very hot tin lid with Ag2o in it. My goal is to separate the Ag and I
just don't see potential there, but if you care to elaborate I am all ears to any helpful ideas.
Thank you all in advance and look forward to sharing ideas.
CraigVolanschemia - 3-4-2015 at 21:54
Silver(I) Oxide begins to decompose to O2 and Ag from 200C. I think that is what unionised was talking about.
That may work but you can't be sure that it has all decomposed. You could separate any leftover Silver(I) Oxide by dumping the lot into
cold Nitric Acid, which react with the oxide but leave the silver.
This kind of defeats the purpose of the tin and candle being easier if you are after purity, so personally I would go with your original plan or
woelen's idea.
Your method of stripping silver is very interesting! I will have to try it myself.Profikiskery - 4-4-2015 at 00:33
Join in!! Here are the specifics I have so far.
Silver cell is a pickle jar about 3/4 full of tap water. Cathode is a large silver plated ladle. Anodes have been various silver plated flatware.
Voltage is set at 15.00 and amps start at 0.00 but increase as Ag turns colloidal.
Ok now to the process .
1.Fill jar about 3-5 inches from the top so you have plenty of room for rinsing periodically .
2.Clamp Anode and Cathode to jar (Leave Anode+ half out of water helps deplate better).Do not let your clamps touch the water.
3.Make sure that Anode and Cathode are across from one another ,not side by side.
4.Turn power supply on,after about 1 1/2 minutes you should start seeing the silver coming off in a cloudy stream.
5.After it runs for a hour or two the cell will start to get real cloudy and by this time you,ll start to see growth on the anode (don,t panic) just
power the cell off .
6.Use spray bottle and tooth brush to clean Anode (Make sure to do this back into the cell).Do not clean Cathode.
7.Flip Anode around so deplated end is sticking out of water and reclamp, and turn power back on.
8.When second half is done , turn power off ,unclamp Anode and use it to stir the cell for about a minute then clean second half of Anode then replace
with new Anode.Continue steps 2-8 Until step 9 comes into play.
9.When water is almost to the top near clamp, power down remove and clean current Anode,remove and spray only the Cathode(You want Cathode to stay
tarnished black).
10.Now that cell is pregnant filter all liquid through 3 stacked coffee filters 1 time only.
11.Rinse black powder in filter with spray bottle, dry till it hardens then save for bigger melt.
12.Now refill cell with the same fluid you filtered and start again,except now you can leave Anode in for longer time period and let the growth grow
longer before cleanings.
Why do you think it's Ag2O ?brubei - 4-4-2015 at 02:46
good questionProfikiskery - 4-4-2015 at 22:05
I don't KNOW that it is Ag2O for sure. This is all new to me but it is working.
Today I tried a bit of a different approach. I used a graphite cathode with 15 Volts and .002 Amps. The anode was just silverplated flatware. The
cathode clouded up with a white haze that seemed to be a gas...it was milky. The water PH shot up from 6.6 to 7.3. My anode got really dark but had no
"gas" like the cathode. There was no odor and my guess is it H2 at the cathode. Initially you get a white powder that turns dark which is leads me to
believe AgCl is present for sure, but again a guess. Got a lot of black particles floating around in the electrolyte.
It looks like the cathode oxidizes any thing that touches it to oxides, and they are not soluble so they are out of the system. I think the PH goes up
because H2 is lost, and lost Cl to AgCl, so the small bit of sodium chloride makes some NaOH until no chlorides are left. Its a big ole salad!!
Now I am thinking the mud is likely a mixture of AgCl with bits of AgNo3 and Ag2So4. They cement back, Ag oxidizes and silver in elemental form comes
off and gets trapped in the instable hydroxyl and eases over to the cathode. Once the silver gets stripped you are going to get some copper or nickel
or zinc I am sure.
If that's the case than this is a great method because it doesn't choose. The nascent O2 just catches the next atom it meets.
All of this is just my best guess as to what I am seeing.
Join in on the fun....its cheap, safe and shows potential.
Profikiskery - 5-4-2015 at 23:23
ATTENTION MODERATORS.
Please remove or delete this thread. Upfront I do not post often at all just mostly read. This is a project my 15 year old and me are working on and
he has taken advantage of the access I let him have to this forum. He has copied stuff from other forums I am reading about and put them in here.
Everything posted is all the things he has pieced together from other posts in other forums. I think he really is trying to learn but went about it
the wrong way. He did put up some of the stuff we read about to start our cell but all the rest of the stuff is not at all what we know. Trust me we
know nothing. Kind of embarrassing but I just became aware of what he was up to. It will not happen anymore.
