Thestock - 7-8-2017 at 01:03
One of my current projects is to make a nickle iron battery from scratch using waste stream products or house hold products. (it started out as making
one scratch but finding the materials in Australia and the OSE project spurred this on)
The best source I think i have for nickle in waste is from permalloy brackets (taken from HDD magets) which are approximately 80% Ni and 20%Fe. Using
this http://lanthanumkchemistry.over-blog.com/article-how-to-sepa... I've put together the following method and would like some input from the more
advanced users here.
1. Electrolyze stainless steel in a solution of sodium chloride (table salt) with a stainless steel anode and steel cathode. This should leave me with
a mix of nickle and iron in the sludge at the bottle in various oxide states.
2. Mix sludge with water and ammonia (need to find a source or manufacture from cloudy ammonia) This should produce a nickle (ii) ammine complex (TBH
i have no idea what this means) filter and continue to leach leaving me with iron oxide on the bottom.
3. Electrolyze nickle ammine to produce pure nickle powder at the cathode which is magnetic so easy to collect.
Am i missing anything?
I should note the highest chemistry I did was year 9 i think, and my original thoughts were to do all this separation mechanically but it seems its
not possible.
Thanks
PirateDocBrown - 7-8-2017 at 01:22
There's also chromium in stainless steel. How are you keeping that out?
Thestock - 7-8-2017 at 01:25
My understanding is there isn't any chromium in permalloy so probably best not to call it a stainless steel.
possibly molybdenium but no calls from chromium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permalloy
physics inclination - 7-8-2017 at 01:27
Sounds like a neat project. I don't know that much about alloy composition chemistry and stuff, but I think stainless steel has chromium in it so be
careful about electrolysis with that as it may produce the very carcinogenic Cr(VI) ion in solution. But if you're just electrolyzing the permalloy
things which don't have Cr like you said, then I think it would be fine. But nickel compounds can also be carcinogenic too I think, and the blog post
says that too.
Anyways good luck and be careful lol 
edit: ok two other posts got posted saying the same thing, while I was writing my post lol sorry to repeat things
[Edited on 8-7-2017 by physics inclination]
wg48 - 7-8-2017 at 02:21
I doubt that modern HDDs use permalloy brackets to mount magnets particularly if they are neodymium magnets.
Some motors used in magnetic recording/playback devices have an outer magnetic shield that looks like a thin sheet of permalloy or Mumetal. Perhaps
they could be a source of nickel.
PS: it is not a good idea to call something one thing (permalloy) then use a different name later (stainless steel) as you can see from the above
posts it can cause confusion.
Thestock - 7-8-2017 at 02:27
anyway to test if it is permalloy?
The material is magnetic, which most (not all) stainless steels aren't.
The other thing being that the link (http://lanthanumkchemistry.over-blog.com/article-how-to-sepa...) does talk about getting rid of the chromium if there is any but I have no need
for the chromium salts.
Sulaiman - 7-8-2017 at 04:35
You live in one of the very few countries on earth that has a working nickel mine, Wikipedia;
"Ravensthorpe Nickel Operations is a nickel mine and hydrometallurgical processing plant located 550 km south east of Perth, in the Ravensthorpe
district of Western Australia."
and judging by images of Australia that I've seen, iron must be everywhere, many many mines.
So you are in a position to offer something useful to your nation !
Time for Aus to stop being a third world raw materials provider and start adding value to such abundance.
If only recyclying is the aim, try for the bottom of the pile
- the stuff that is least likely to be recycled by local authorities,
almost anything that has a metalic shiny silver appearance is likely to be nickel plated,
and rusty nails are rarely recycled, etc.
washed, used iron wool scouring pads would react quickly due to surface area
[Edited on 7-8-2017 by Sulaiman]
Melgar - 10-8-2017 at 12:23
I recently updated all the Wikipedia pages I could find that claimed that nickel was carcinogenic, to reflect the fact that it's only carcinogenic for
people that inhale water-soluble nickel salts as an occupational hazard. Some people have nickel allergies, which tends to make them unable to wear
cheap jewelry, but unless you're working in a nickel mine or a nickel processing plant, carcinogenicity shouldn't be a concern.
XeonTheMGPony - 10-8-2017 at 13:19
Heating elements have good amounts of Nickle so old blow dryers and toasters and ovens, as a side benefit you get chromium too!