Easy Silver Chloride Reduction With Aluminum?

[@rockman531]

Hi Mike, Interesting experiment! Your 3 words - "seemingly easy alternative" was a great clue to the results. Thanks for being a great teacher - again! Have an awesome day! Jim

[@Alrik.]

As soon as I read "seemingly easy" in the introduction I lauged and knew it'd be another interesting video! 😅

[@kylecissell958]

Very interesting to say the least. The ion exchange does have its limits sadly. Once a good portion of the silver chloride converts to silver metal it’s hard pressed to keep the reaction headed in that direction. One interesting method that I learned about in undergraduate is that silver chloride is actually soluble in 50% ammonia solution. We dissolved it and then dropped out the silver using the classic copper wire. Was very interesting since I didn’t think much of anything would dissolve Silver Chloride very easily.

[@M0DiFiEDZ]

The commonly known method of sulphuric and iron works decently well. The whole silver chloride situation could be avoided by cementing the silver on copper instead of converting the nitrate to chloride with the addition of HCL. imo

[@GSProspecting]

Great job all around fam. Keep on having fun and living the dream. Gold Squad Out!!!

[@frankzahn7773]

You should try using steel for the aluminum. I've been doing it for many years with steel. You must wash out all the rinse it very well. Maybe boil it in hcl to get rid of all the steel. Try it and make a video to see what happens. I think you will like the outcome.

[@gilgoldmuenze2570]

At first I was thinking you do a termite reaction, then you melting the AgCl then adding Al to it, but you surprised me. Two things to change maybe: 1. the metal, Al is very down the electrochemical Serie, so it will convert many other contaminations. So maybe tin or iron could work different. 2. The form of the metal. Smaller parts are hard to remove, also things that fall into pieces. So I think, a solid bar of metal hanging in the solution without touching the button is the theory I would test. Good luck!

[@omegageek64]

Thanks for the suggestions.

[@ejkozan]

i have seen someone doing that by stirring with an iron nail. In theory, you could then use L bent iron rod mounted to the motor and just stir the silver chloride water mix. Mixing always helps with mass transfer in chemical reactions, if you can do it.

[@archertom5221]

Hi Mike, during the reduction process stir it time to time!!! It's very important! I’m afraid, that this gray precipitate is not dissolved aluminum or aluminum oxide. After pulled out the aluminum heatsink and several rinses, You have to boil the metallic alu in the beaker with sulphuric acid a few minutes to dissolve leftover alu from heatsink. Next rinse it a few times, dry and melt it. 100% success! Purity 99,99! I’m using this method for a few years! Good luck!😊

[@omegageek64]

Thanks for the tips!

[@Enjoymentboy]

I've tried this method a few times and I just don't like it. I find the Al contamination is heard to remove and if I run the Ag through my electro-cell it does not form the regular crystals I expect. It's hard to describe but they are just weird and I have to redissolve in nitric and start all over again. Now, if you're not striving for ultra pure then this method should work but it's not the way I like to go. But even when using lye/sugar I do things slightly different in that once converted I heavily dilute and neutralise with HCl. This makes it settle WAY faster and I have to wash far less and because of this I get less losses.

[@2001pulsar]

Add some sodium carbonate (lectric soda) to the crucible and reheat. It may reduce some of the gray solid back to metal

[@omegageek64]

Thanks, I'll try that.

[@TrevorsBench]

I have done this same conversion using zinc. Stirring is the key. Just setting Al in the silver chloride will not complete the conversion fully and there always will be some losses

[@harrison4687]

Could you add more dilute sulfuric acid for more of a medium for the displacement to occur?

[@joek511]

Circulation would likely help. and the reaction needs to be ballanced. x grams of aluminum to 1 gram of silver. I have no idea what the ratio would need to be.

[@WaffleStaffel]

ok. The starting weight of the silver chloride wasn't stated (because refiners always keep their AgCl wet). There should be 1.3287g of silver chloride for every 1g of silver. If there's any liquid left in with the silver when it's dried, there will be aluminum chloride going into the crucible, and that will be mostly vaporized. So ,the weight going into the crucible is irrelevant as long as pure silver is coming out, it's the weight of AgCl going in that matters. Without drying your silver chloride, the only way to get a weight is to thoroughly filter and blot all the water out of the reduced silver before melting it, so that you're not including the weight of any aluminum chloride.

[@WaffleStaffel]

AlCl vaporizes at a few hundred degrees.

[@shaneyork300]

Are going to perfect it?

[@afineliner740]

What a shame, I was really hopeful you found a new method. 👍

[@phoenixfyre2000]

how bout using aluminum powder

[@frantiseklaluch6605]

Hi man, did you try melting AgCl with Na2CO3? 4AgCl +2Na2CO3 → 4Ag +4NaCl +2CO2 +O2 (at 850 -900 celsius). Silver should be pretty clean...

[@omegageek64]

Thanks for the tip

[@robertsletten7466]

Got to love Chemistry ... 👍👍

[@gordonauld5945]

Maybe use powdered aluminum?

[@Akragonus]

don't drown your metal in flux!! Interesting idea though. Cementing out on copper is the easiest way i've found. even using lye and sugar is a pain in the ass, but it works too

[@goldensadventures1229]

Man you got my hopes all up then dashed upon the rocks 😂

[@omegageek64]

Sorry about that. However, I am getting comments from people who swear this method works great if I just do it a little differently. Looks like there will be more experimenting on this in the future.

[@wesleymccravy901]

Concentrated Sulfuric acid and an iron nail. Head for an hour. Full conversion

[@salihakdag6371]

👍❤️

[@adambuysyuckyhouses]

This is interesting... but i melt silver chloride without converting it all of the time why waste the time.

[@johannesdesloper8434]

Hahahaha, SIlver thermite? Lets check it out!

[@johannesdesloper8434]

I assume the fins are for dispersing heat of the reaction? haha. Refreshing to see new stuff, I like that.

[@omegageek64]

I was thinking this reaction is like a slow motion, low temp, thermite reaction that produces metallic silver. I wondered if finely powdered aluminum would work better, but didn't have any to test.

[@johannesdesloper8434]

@@omegageek64 I was joking a bit ofcourse. As you might know aluminium powder can react pretty violent. If fine enough it can bang when reacting with oxygen. Could well be that a thermite like reaction would be possible when heated to when in the presence of Chlorides. but that's why I watch you folks.

[@davidmaisel8062]

Nothing is a failure when you learn something from the process. I like that you used a round bottom flask for fume reduction. That's smart! Second using sulfuric acid is a huge cost saver. I'd go with iron as suggested in some of the other posts suggested as you get a better conversation rate and cleaner end product but it really depends on what your final goal is. If you are making objects you have to convert your silver to 925 anyway so a little aluminum isn't a big deal. Aluminum foil chopped up has a larger surface area so that might help your reaction. Loved the video!