Pure Silver From SILVER CHLORIDE using Heat and SODIUM CARBONATE

[@jayson8372]

Thank you for sharing this "magic" of conversion! I learned something new tonight! Awesome video!

[@uspockdad6429]

So glad you poured off the molten liquid on top of the silver onto the table. I am pretty sure during that conversion, you are making a lot of NaCl. And dumping molten salt into water would explode violently. To any amateurs who want to try this, do not make silver shot this way. Follow sreetips example and wait for the button to cool to solid before putting it in water. I learned this the hard way a few months ago, and got tiny 2nd degree burns on my arm from molten salt that splattered in the explosion. Luckily I was wearing a lab coat and eye protection or it would have been a lot worse.

[@360Vacation2]

Thank you Streetips!! You are the best! Watching your videos makes me smile.

[@morlanius]

Really interesting, I didn't know it could be done that way but I think the wet process is far more efficient, let alone safer.

[@Alsacien]

This was fascinating. The silver chloride with sodium carbonate reaction isn't something I've ever done. I probably won't ever since it's so messy, but I loved the video. Also, silver chloride is so beautiful when its production is the goal as opposed to it just being a bothersome contaminant, what a lovely white!

[@MadScientist267]

Expose it to UV light and the metal gets set free. So does the chlorine. Make provisions.

[@johngalt2506]

I love your silver videos. Don't get me wrong, i enjoy all your videos. But the silver interests me the most. Thank you for posting them!

[@hansweichselbaum2534]

I also like silver. I just wish the chloride would behave like most other chlorides and be water soluble. I would make life so much easier!

[@isaacclark9825]

@@hansweichselbaum2534There are pros and cons. One of the steps for purifying gold is based on filtering out insoluble compounds. Yes, there are times when silver chloride would gum up the works, but those things are avoidable.

[@hansweichselbaum2534]

@@isaacclark9825 But it would be nice if you could dissolve all gold-silver alloys straight in aqua regia.

[@diegohenrique3388]

This process is a lot of loss, I know it was just an experiment... but the ideal is really to metalize

[@ArielleViking]

That flip directly into the water, way kool 👍🏻👍🏻

[@ANCIENTASTRONAUT411]

Nice flick man you cannot beat that with a stick my friend

[@josephschnabel1andonly]

Whoosh

[@QuivaRPG]

Very cool! I love the more standard reactions that you do, and I'll never get tired of them, but seeing something new (to me) like this is really mind-blowing.

[@DavidDavis-fishing]

Gooood evening from central Florida! Hope everyone has a great night!

[@sreetips]

Goooood evening!

[@der_pinguin44]

East, West, or Orlando metropolitan area?

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Greetings back from Melbourne, Florida.

[@DavidDavis-fishing]

@@der_pinguin44 Dade City... northeast of Tampa.

[@DavidDavis-fishing]

@@AppliedCryogenics 👋

[@natekloepfer1571]

This could be seen as an acid-base reaction. The acidic silver cation (Ag+) reacts with the basic carbonate anion (CO3)2+ to form silver carbonate, which quickly decomposes in the heat to form silver metal. The sodium and chloride ions act as spectators and form sodium chloride.

[@garrettmillsap]

So cool! I've never seen this done before. Thank you for showing us!

[@ArielleViking]

This sure was a fascinating melt and something new to me to watch. Awesome 👍🏻

[@Antonowskyfly]

You’re welcome! I thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the video: science, games(swish!) and sensibility, to mention a few. Quality content, quality production. Thank you Sir!👍👍🤟

[@ChrisHopkinsBass]

It’s amazing to think that if it wasn’t for alchemists trying to make gold from base metals we’d have never developed chemistry.

[@ExtractingMetals]

I read an article once that implied that Silver Chloride breaks down into pure metal when exposed to UV light. Try spreading some out in a corningare dish in a thin layer and leave it in the sun for a day. The results may be surprising.

[@KallePihlajasaari]

@ExtractingMetals As in photographic emulsions the reaction is enhanced by organic contamination. This is provided by the film base made of gelatine and the coating of egg white (albumin) used on early enlarger papers. Adding just a little might make it a lot more sensitive to the UV light.

[@sreetips]

I’d be worried about keeping bugs, leaves, and moisture out. But I guess those would be eliminated when melted.

[@sreetips]

That’s interesting. Add egg whites to the silver chloride to make more light sensitive. Use two pans. One with thin layer egg white. One without egg white. Expose them to sun light side by side.

[@KallePihlajasaari]

@@sreetips Generally photographic materials are the organic base and they are sensitised by a silver halide. However I have also read that silver halides in storage become more susceptible to darkening from organic contaminants. I would take egg white and dilute it to 10%, 1%, 0.1% with water, rinse the silver chloride with the albumen colloid and allow to dry to room humidity (the reaction slows down if it is anhydrous I think). Place in the sun in a tray with different layer thickness. I have not heard of this used to recover silver though it is a nuisance effect that causes film and photographic paper fogging and was the basis for the gelatin emulsions and albumen printing out paper. The magic of fast film was in controlling the size and shape of the silver halide crystals to have them small and still very ready to store a latent image by activating just a single silver atom and then having the whole crystal convert to silver in the developer chemical. With the early printing out papers no developer was used but a lot more UV was used. I suppose less UV and some photographic developer would reduce the silver. Vitamin-C and Instant coffee are known ghetto developers. There were many others that have been forgotten with the memory holing of B&W film photography.

[@KallePihlajasaari]

@@sreetips They would just add to the effect. :-)

[@StefanShorko]

This is something new. I have never seen you do this kind of experiment before. Cheers. Good work team

[@rickjohnson6559]

I understand the basics of acid. I know even citric has uses other than food. I have hauled soda ash from kemmemer wyoming inert till combined. Your videos fascinate me. This one was wow.

[@paulabraden974]

Thank you for something a little different this week. ❤ your videos.

[@malcolmcliff-du8qp]

Thank you... I've just had a huge nightmare with silver chloride that refused to turn back into metal... Lye and sugar method and aluminium and HCl failed... I ended up with grey powder after HCl but it still wouldn't melt into metal just grey slag... I will get everything and try a proper melt tomorrow... The owner dried the silver chloride and I think that's what caused issues...

[@MrBenski81]

Magic, just Magic. Love your vids!

[@waynoswaynos]

15:35 that's why the old books called it The Moon or Luna. It really looks just like it. Thank you for sharing this fun experiment Sreetips… would have been nice to know how much silver you had in solution to begin with. A lot of silver is lost this way due to the volatility of the AgCl. Most of it could vapour away if you let it. Good you wore the PPE.

[@laurdy]

I suspect my preferred reaction would be: AgNO3 + NaCl = AgCl + NaNO3 2AgCl + 2NaOH = Ag2O + 2NaCl + H2O Ag2O + Heat = 2Ag

[@dbaca148]

so cool. I can see why you do the lye and sugar conversion tho, much easier and clean.

[@sreetips]

Agree

[@PaulBrown-uj5le]

Another great video sreetips, hello from IRELAND 🇮🇪

[@sreetips]

Hello Ireland!

[@someguy-k2h]

That was something new and interesting. Thanks for showing that.

[@franciscohernandez9369]

another cool silver experiment you could do the next time you have some leftover silver nitrate is making a mirror with silver like they used to be made

[@isaacclark9825]

Fascinating experiment!! Just one question... Why use hot water to rinse? Cold water would minimize the loss of Silver Chloride. Since the expected impurities (nitrates) are highly soluble in cold water, using hot water seems counter-productive.

[@sreetips]

I guess I just didn’t think of all that.

[@Sylvain_lx]

Silver chloride is almost insoluble in water so it is better to rinse it with hot water to avoid contamination

[@isaacclark9825]

@@Sylvain_lx Silver chloride is partially soluble in HOT water. In this case, the expected contaminates are nearly completely soluble at room temperature. Rinsing with hot water does not have an advantage over cold water in this instance. Recall that we started with essentially pure silver nitrate solution and added reagent grade HCl. The only contaminant present in significant concentration is nitric acid.

[@apveening]

@@isaacclark9825 You beat me to it.

[@sreetips]

After ponding, the reason I used hot water was that heat rinses better than cold. I did consider that AgCl is slightly soluble in water, more so in hot water, but it didn’t matter for this experiment. I’ll get it back by adding the rinses (that contained traces of dissolved silver chloride) to my silver chloride “stock pot” and letting it accumulate there.

[@ronjlwhite8058]

Good to see some new techniques Sreetips. Good shot too for sure!!!

[@jonasgeez2140]

The flip into ge water was great also looks so mutch better after the re melt

[@Cs13762]

silver nitrite is kinda interesting. it looks a bit like that except it's yellow becaues of the nitrite ion. you make it by mixing silver nitrate with sodium nitrite and it forms a cottage cheese thing like that chloride you just made except yellowish. i want to learn about silver oxide and other silver compounds because they have unique properties.

[@fredrichardson9761]

I like this video and I think it shows pretty clearly why you don't do all your refining at high temperatures using crucibles. That looks really tricky to deal with! However, you had a great outcome regardless! With the caveat that I'm no chemist and with the help of Google, I got the equation that I think corresponds to what is going on in the melt dish: 2Na2CO3 + 4AgCl → 4Ag + 2CO2 + 4NaCl + O2 So if I have that right, the "by products" of the reaction are pure silver, carbon dioxide, table salt and oxygen. I was thinking there's probably a lot of salt along with the Borax in the slag you poured off.

[@seanlancaster594]

Love seeing this one! If only the silver cell had a 24 hour live stream camera to watch!❤❤

[@PickyPlans]

Fact: When a smaller channel does the job, it gets negative feedback "YOU ARE LOOSING WAY TOO MUCH SILVER", but a larger channel doesn't. Good job, the only issue with this method is NaCO3 is harsh to melting dish.

[@sreetips]

Harold_V used sodium carbonate to clean is melt dishes.

[@PickyPlans]

@@sreetips He has great instructions 👍 And also he mentioned to clean as much as needed to prolong the useful life of the dish. Although the soda ash and heat method saves you time, Sodium hydroxide can do the job at a lower melting temperature, but it literally destroys the melting dish.

[@CothranMike]

@@PickyPlans yes, it disolves the borax coating as well as any more porous areas of the dish. If left in long enough it will consume the ceramic and leave only the roasted remains. Do remember to reseal the dish in the same fashion as you used to prepare it, borax, anhydrous if ya got it. For them folks in the humid areas good luck keeping it from moisture while stored for occasional usage. Even a desicant needs drying where I live.

[@paulknight1879]

Thanks for showing us how u do it , can we c one of the silver trees up close please. Love what u do it's amazing 👏

[@johnh8615]

If you had a furnace and smelted your precious metals on a dented pile of Portland cement powder then the oxides will run of the top and get absorbed into the cement edge leaving the pure precious metals. Jason from mbmmlc does it like that.

[@markmayer2029]

Chloride and oxide are 2 different beasts. Each need to be treated for their own unique chemistry.

[@sreetips]

The reaction that I m doing is a little different.

[@adws5696]

Always nice to see new things!

[@seanhewitt603]

Nice. I like the whiteness of the silver chloride.

[@hansweichselbaum2534]

Interesting reaction! Never seen that. I guess the normal route via sodium hydroxide and sugar is more gentle on the lungs.

[@jeepin4on4]

Love your videos, thanks!

[@Kranskinator1]

Awesome video!! Keep feeding the beast!!

[@2001pulsar]

To get the silver cleaner, use nitrate salt with the borax

[@justinhayes7]

It's unreal how much silver you have

[@at_3831]

I’m surprised you didn’t boil the water off in the beaker on the hot plate bf putting it in the melt dish to prevent popping from the h2o steam. As always tho excellent content thanks for sharing this stuff with the world

[@sreetips]

Sometimes I dry the gold powder before melting. But in this case I put it in the crucible wet, to save time.

[@cadleo]

13:40 Button? Thats a silver biscuit! nice flip!

[@joshkelly4682]

I always enjoy your videos, I'm battling a migraine so I'm going to have to watch it again because i missed some of what you were saying. but that should give you another view

[@cpm1003]

I am curious about this reaction. What is the yellow smoke? ClO2? What is the purpose of the NaCO3? Very interesting video!

[@TheZombieSaints]

Chlorine ☠

[@sreetips]

I’m not familiar with the chemistry. A mentor of mine made reference to this reaction once and I’ve always wanted to try it. It works. But it’s cumbersome and probably not an efficient method. And that’s why I prefer the BEAST.

[@raytruesdell7873]

Still very cool to watch this very educational to me be safe everyone

[@josephcormier5974]

Sir this was a very cool and enjoyable video thank you for sharing this with us six stars sir

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Hey, one time I made a bunch of silver chloride and just threw it in a crucible and put it in the furnace and it melted down into silver. I'm pretty sure I didn't add anything else. And it didn't bubble over! I just decanted off the water, and I didn't even really dry it! It was a propane flame, though. I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. Oh! I think I figured out what happened. I used a graphite crucible.

[@sreetips]

That’s interesting. In my experiment the silver chloride melted into a boiling soup. The silver didn’t form until I added the sodium carbonate.

[@apveening]

@@sreetips The carbonate was provided by the graphite from the crucible when it oxidized (graphite is one of the forms of solid, pure carbon).

[@Sanzus2]

Never to old to learn a new trick! Seemed like a lot less work than sugar and lye? Scaled up to an overpour mold, I could see that working quite well!

[@beauhodges7957]

I can see why you don't process all your silver this way. A lot heat, and it looks like you filled your shop with chlorine gas

[@sreetips]

Plus the molten silver chloride was popping out of the melt dish. I’d hate to get any of that on me

[@briantaulbee6452]

​@@sreetipsmaybe use a larger crucible?

[@riverboat28]

Good to know there's other options out there.

[@adws5696]

15:46 😂😂😂that was divine intervention

[@wadebert4458]

Morning Gunny. I just pick up a, "Toledo Blade", (newspaper), presentation tray. It's silver plated. 71.143 ounces of Silver plate! How would you handle this? It's copper under the Silver. The stamp on the back was so degraded and worn, I couldn't make out anything but, "Silver Pla". The weight of the Silver plate was illegible. Thanks in advance my friend! I'm watching this Silver Chloride video, again, as I have quite a bit to refine. Never hurts to download a refresher into my old nogen! Your videos are truly PURE GOLD! Your friend, Wade

[@sreetips]

I have a bin and I throw it in there. Maybe when silver gets up over a hundred bucks I’ll make a video on how to get the silver. There’s not very much.

[@timsmith9645]

Awesome video nice silver round you did never seen that done that way before anyway silver cell looking good thanks for sharing sreetips

[@ZoruaZorroark]

the silver chloride looks like wet powdered sugar or whipped cream to me, and seeing the rest of the process makes you look like you were doing alchemy

[@Knee-ko]

I think your lab shirt almost deserves it's own channel, Kevin. 😂😂👍👍

[@sreetips]

I’ll put it up for bids on my eBay site.

[@Knee-ko]

@@sreetips framed and autographed 👍👍

[@CothranMike]

@@Knee-ko yes, add that value!

[@sir.richardarmstrong3rd759]

I wonder what you would get if you recaptured everything that evaporates.

[@machinist1337]

Great video streetips!

[@rom65536]

Thanks for demonstrating that my poorly informed opinion was wrong :) Next idea: Spread a thin layer of silver chloride on a plastic tray and set it in sun. Sunlight _should_ drive off the Cl and leave you with AgO. I know light will cause AgCl to disassociate - that's how old photographs worked. But then again, I'm getting that from the same source that told me that AgCl will disassociate with heat and leave silver metal.

[@PetraKann]

...or AgBr

[@ottolehikoinen6193]

Desinfection by chlorine containing gas is not always necessary, but here it just happens.

[@Mike-METALS]

That was a good shot right in the water

[@sreetips]

Right!?

[@Der0Nibelung]

Once the Silver Chloride is rinsed and dried, will adding Nitric acid convert it back into Silver Nitrate?

[@sreetips]

No, silver chloride is insoluble in acids. But hot ammonia will dissolve silver chloride.

[@apveening]

@@sreetips No need to heat up the ammonia, room temperature will do.

[@swoops212]

Could you use your cement silver and use this method to remove the copper from it?

[@sreetips]

Maybe, but it’s cumbersome. I prefer the BEAST for cranking out my pure silver.

[@apveening]

You can't, copper and silver are both metals. This works with silver chloride because that is a salt, more specifically a halogen salt.

[@swoops212]

@@apveening I figured. I was just thinking maybe adding nitric to the cement silver would do that. I'm generally curious and probably ask a lot of dumb questions 😂

[@BrandonJohnson-mi3nm]

Love the experiments. I always wonder what would happen if you melt down the sweeps from around your melt table.

[@MountainJohn]

This was very sad. I saw this video and realized it was posted 53 minutes ago and I can't see part two of those beautiful silver crystals until he uploads :(

[@scotthultin7769]

First 👍's up sreetips thank you for sharing 🤗

[@ut000bs]

I would be pouring a bunch of 1 and 10 oz silver bars/rounds and hiding them under the steps. I can't imagine. Thanks once again, Sr.

[@razaliyusof8861]

Means some silver lost turns to vapors.nise video sifu.

[@shermantripp5246]

Central ohio here love ur channel my guy

[@sreetips]

Thank you

[@world3957]

VERY NICE VIDEO SIR NICE JOB AS ALWAYS LAST WEEK I TOOK A LITTLE SILVER TOO

[@ja-canadian5451]

I have been wondering for a while if you can melt Silver Chloride, since the Lye and Sugar looks so messy. But Google searches didn't give me this answer. THANKS! Is the "Yellow Smoke" really Chlorine Gas?

[@sreetips]

Probably hot chlorine. But I’m not sure.

[@apveening]

@@sreetips Definitely at least partly chlorine, literally gone up in smoke.

[@TheMegalegenden]

Just a though, what if you would utilise argon to avoid the silver absorbing the oxygen as it cools down?

[@sreetips]

No experience handling argon

[@alhefner]

Fun process. Is any silver lost with this as opposed to other methods?

[@sreetips]

I don’t know

[@ryanholladay3353]

You said the heat causes the solution to evaporate. Is that from an exothermic reaction, or ambient heat? Would putting the bowl down into some chilled water help, or is it necessary to have the heat for crystal formation and growth?

[@sreetips]

The current flow cause some heat. Plus ambient will contribute to evaporation of the electrolyte. I don’t think ice bath would be beneficial.

[@markmatt9174]

Wondering if this is more or less effective/efficient at conversion of the silver feom liquid to metal vs other methods? If you could take 1oz and try to put it into solution then convert it back using several methods to know what works best $ for $? 😮

[@sreetips]

This method is messy. And I don’t think it’s very efficient. The BEAST is my preferred method for refining pure silver.

[@markmatt9174]

@sreetips that makes sense 🤔 wondering how many ways maybe a condensed video showing all the methods.

[@OwlTech333]

I would love to learn that trick @15:47 😊

[@andrewrossi7164]

Awesome stuff sreetips, you are amazing my friend 👍

[@sreetips]

Thank you.

[@stevenrowlandson9650]

Does running the silver crystal through the electrolytic silver cell multiple times improve the purity of the silver?

[@sreetips]

Yes! I ran some back through the cell a second time and sent it in for ICP analysis. It came back greater than five nines fine. (99,999 parts per one hundred thousand)

[@tomahawktom7595]

Beauty is the silver…Beast is the huge silver cell contraption…Beauty and the BEAST

[@sreetips]

Good one!

[@markmanning2921]

I thought this was going to be a "And this is why you never do this" kind of video lol

[@ICU2B4UDO]

Chief, that was cool!! After all these years, I've never seen you pull that stunt...Nice! 😅...

[@sreetips]

I’ve always wanted to try it.

[@philbartoli2011]

Very interesting!! Separately I wonder how much gold / pm is in that trap under the sink?

[@BeezyKing99]

not much gets stuck in the trap... as the constant usage daily will almost always flush out the trap

[@Kranskinator1]

I don't think he lets anything escape watching how meticulous he handles and rinses.

[@dustinscroggins3382]

Would thay be equivelant of refining in a cupelle??

[@sreetips]

I think it’s a different type reaction.

[@markmayer2029]

You must be making a fortune! Granite counter tops in the lab, nice touch.

[@rishard]

i wish you were my mentor, keep up the great vids sree

[@barthanes1]

There he goes... for the three. And it's goooood!

[@24KGOLDRECOVERY]

Excellent video 🎉

[@fieldie]

Sure makes you wonder, how did someone actually come up with this process and got it to work?

[@زايدالدويري]

Silver looks beautiful but why doesn't it melt if exposed to air while melting it several times no matter how strong the fire is it doesn't melt❤

[@sreetips]

Something to do with the carbon in the sodium carbonate. But I’m not familiar with the chemistry.

[@زايدالدويري]

@@sreetips 🙋

[@jasong8377]

why not use hcl to clean

[@sreetips]

Didn’t think of it.

[@deanfranklin6870]

Okie dokie. That was a bit different. But a question comes to mind. After you melted the silver chloride into a liquid what happens if you allow it to cool? It can't return to powder can it? Or remain liquid? Good to see that the Beast still has a really good appetite.

[@sreetips]

I’m not sure, but my guess is that it cools into a gooey or glass-like substance.

[@deanfranklin6870]

@@sreetips yeah. I just figured it would cool into a blob.

[@apveening]

@@sreetips More like a rock like substance (think rock salt but silver chloride instead of sodium/potassium chloride with contaminant).

[@HellHoundOne]

Good sir. I am wondering, with that torch, and those tips, how much gets vaporized? On a guessing side.

[@sreetips]

I don’t know.

[@TalRohan]

I am now wondering if I can find a large source of silver nitrate or solver chloride lol thanks for sharing I have everything except the silver source...although I could do with a way to make silver shed out of very old roofing lead....hmmm

[@dustinscroggins3382]

Great video by the way

[@tsmall07]

That was really cool.

[@adambuysyuckyhouses]

I watched the video but i dont understand why u need the sodium chlorinate i have melted silver chloride without them am i magic?

[@sreetips]

I don’t know because I don’t have much experience, only doing this two times. I used sodium carbonate, not sodium chlorinate.

[@adambuysyuckyhouses]

@sreetips i have heard that 2 things reduce silver chloride sun light thats why it turns purple and heat and at that point u can melt it. I am not a chemist just a hobby

[@markdavis1441]

😮 nice shot sreetips!

[@dynorat12]

great video thank you

[@yordanmitev2337]

i love this channel