Silver Chloride Conversion With Lye and Sugar Pt1

[@sledgenwedge]

😂such a delicate balance of F'n around and finding out. Always enjoy your chemistry lessons

[@TrumpedUp888]

I've seen some incredible things in my 58 yrs on this earth. However, what you did in this silver processing video by adding sugar, of all things, to the silver oxide blew me away!😮 Your step by step procedure tonight has just earned a place in my top 5 of the most remarkable and beyond incredible things I've ever seen. I truly want to thank you for the time you took to make this video. It's truly an amazing and spectacular experience ✨️ You Rock, sir!

[@sreetips]

Excellent, thank you!

[@tomasallende9583]

The fact you made such a dumb comment made sense when I realized you're probably an antivaxxer. ''Oh my, you're telling me sugar is a chemical?'' Yes pumpkin, it's a reducing agent in this case, I don't understand how this baffles you to this degree.

[@timpratten2258]

There are so many ways to convert these metals into different versions. My mind gets blown everytime I watch your videos. Please keep them coming I thoroughly enjoy them

[@essexfarmer9610]

That exothermic reaction was fascinating. Who would have thought there was so much trapped energy in there? I compare this to the mild warmth from mixing cement / concrete and this is insane! Thanks for posting a truly compelling process! You are a true chemist Sir! Please everybody give this a thumbs up!

[@WizardVespian]

That’s why it’s so stable. It’s hard to get it to react in the first place.. takes a lot of energy to make that happen. Nitric acid is a powerful oxidizer.. and it’s done over heat( more energy added). When you go back to silver metal, you get that energy back. Normally I don’t see it boil like that because I don’t have that much silver.. In this case.. there was plenty to boil the water.

[@buenodye4723]

I have been watching longer than a decade and I've never seen this before. Thank you for showing the process sir 👌🏻

[@johnnykerley4791]

Would like to see you do one video on how to plate out the copper from your stock pot. I know it's not really something you are interested in, but it might make a neat addition to your metal reaction series.

[@sreetips]

It cements out on pieces of iron in n my waste treatment bucket.

[@johnnykerley4791]

@@sreetips yes. I was thinking more along the line of a possible anode / cathode electrolytic cell that would plate out pure copper from the waste treatment fluids. Similar to how you grow your pure silver from your impure silver shot.

[@ScottySwans]

I know copper is small fry compared to gold and silver but... Man with how diligent you are at maximizing each waste treatment, I'm shocked you just get rid of it!!

[@GokouZWAR]

I’d agree. Copper isn’t gold but it is pretty valuable when you have a lot of it. You could take the copper metal and make an ingot out of it and reuse it in your silver treatment.

[@sreetips]

I can’t even give it away.

[@Carpenterjoh65]

He should at least set it aside until there's enough to care about. I agree, it seems to violate Sreetips' ethics to just toss it.

[@kimberlynolz5725]

That's how i drop most my silver thin run it thru the cell! Supper pure silver at the end!

[@Alison.Saunders]

It’s amazing. In Australia people steal copper all the time because of its value. Often we get power outages because someone has stolen copper wire. I’m surprised that it has not much value in the states

[@whatthefunction9140]

🎶 a spoon full of sugar makes the silver drop right out 🎶

[@BigFrankieC]

I was thinking, "Some spoons full of sugar makes the chemicals erupt, in the most delightful way."

[@Carpenterjoh65]

You make great content. Keep up the good work and I really appreciate you mixing things up and not doing the same job over and over.

[@dand8538]

I have been watching your past video. The things you have done. Refining virtually every precious metal known. Thank you for taking the time and effort to make your channel. You are awesome.

[@sreetips]

Thank you!

[@Chris-ch5nb]

I love this. This is the kind of thorough, well thought, well explained, accurate information I’ve come to expect from this channel. It excellent seeing the full path your processes take and seeing the waste end of it safely covered also. Thank you!

[@Aiasmor]

Really enjoyed this demonstration!

[@andrewlovesu1]

I love how far you have come since i first saw you on the forum. I think we started on the forum at the same time. You mastered the processes👍👍 From New Zealand 🇳🇿

[@sreetips]

I remember fumbling about when I first started in the forum. It’s been a wonderful journey, and I’m still learning new things.

[@dustinscroggins3382]

This was a great video, cant waot for part 2, Wish you did more of this conversion

[@wes35-jv9tx]

Greetings Sreetips, I noticed something in your previous video about harvesting your new larger silver cell. AS you recall, you placed the anode foot on silver blocks that you said were some failed silver anode feet. My theory is that by you doing so, you created a sort of barrier between the anode and the impure silver shot-thereby allowing the silver blocks as a foundation to take the brunt of the slime damage that can happen to the anode foot in previous setups. You also are potentially making better, more efficient contact for the current flow. If I’m correct, you could always use blocks of silver as a barrier and hardly ever need to replace your anode foot in the future.

[@sreetips]

I agree, it was a new discovery and I’ll probably keep some bars handy to use thusly.

[@chadvail4436]

Love all your videos , a true legend and value to us all ! Thanks again

[@DavidDavis-fishing]

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

[@sreetips]

Goooood evening!

[@squishyxout]

I don't know what you do with all your note sheets, but if you keep them, I would love a video on how much gold you lose over the course of 6 months or so, and a follow up on refining the gold waste from that time to see how much of your "lost" gold is recovered in the long run.

[@rosaestrellareateguimarin3273]

Me encanta ver sus videos son geniales,yo hice el proceso pero con hierro y se metalizo muy bien el cloruro de plata que procese de restos de plata sucia,salio una buena calidad de plata,ahora voy a experimentar con este proceso suyo... bendiciones!!!

[@ArielleViking]

Very spectacular reactions, I loved that you showed the temperature of these. Awesome ❤👍🏻

[@BenjaminSteber]

It’s good to see a basic solution when every other refining you’ve done deal with acidic solutions.

[@rockosgaminglogic]

20:50 speed this up by filling the beaker with each rinse. You use smaller rinses with consumables such as distilled water or expensive solvents.

[@sreetips]

Good idea, I’ll give that a try next time.

[@spencermaiers8322]

All this knowledge and techniques! Impressive as always boss. Really fabulous.

[@mikebell2112]

My great grandfather lived in Chloride, New Mexico. May have died of silicosis. On the other side of the family was a mining engineer/deputy who moved on from Colorado into the southwest looking for silver.

[@dizzious]

Thanks! I had forgotten about this method.

[@dlplow]

I was worried you weren’t gonna get a video out on Easter! I appreciate all your work that you do. I love all your content!

[@jonathonbaker5107]

You make this seem so cost effective, seems as if nothing goes to waste !

[@debcamp2359]

Great lesson. Very cool process.

[@gfhrtshergheghegewgewgew1730]

very cool to see how you process the silver chlorides, i like the use of the siphons

[@locksmith7621]

To convert silver hydroxide back to silver, you can heat the silver hydroxide to a high temperature which will cause it to decompose, releasing oxygen and leaving behind pure silver metal

[@dbaca148]

thank you sreetips. so cool. what ratio of silver chloride and lye do you find that works. then ratio of silver oxide and sugar?

[@sreetips]

I’m not quite sure about that. I add lye until it turns a uniform jet-black color. Then enough sugar, a little at a time, until no more reaction occurs.

[@1nduced891]

Fascinating demonstration. Been waiting for this one. cheers!

[@RectifiedMetals]

I’ll take what little silver chloride I collect and use soda ash to convert it in the crucible. I just don’t like the amount of waste water I get from this method. I’m glad you did another take. I forgot how exothermic this reaction is.

[@sreetips]

Silver chloride with sodium carbonate reduction to pure silver in a hot crucible. I’ve never tried it. Harold_V said it will boil over if you don’t leave enough room in the crucible.

[@RectifiedMetals]

@@sreetips yes that is true, and the soda ash will eat crucibles. I have very little hanging around. I use an old beat up crucible in the furnace, while I make my silver shot.

[@87bwadman]

If you've tried this with clean silver chloride, then the red brown liquid may be caramelized sugars. Reduction of carbohydrates plus heat forms complex sugars.

[@Hillbilly-Tech]

Wow! Had a Mythbuster's vibe.. :) Thank your Sreetips. Proof what Sugar does to the Human Body. 😁

[@stevethomas1638]

Fascinating conversion!

[@claudiosantana3320]

Thnk u, for explaining and showing along, u are gold

[@micahpaul20]

I really enjoy your videos and I’m thinking about starting an electrolytic silver cell. It’s very interesting and a great way to get silver vs paying over spot prices.

[@JamesAnderson-nz1ro]

very cool process I really like this one.

[@RDEYO1]

And me thinking sugar in the title would be an april fools since in my timezone it was published on April 1st.... Great video sir!

[@erickleven1712]

Silver Chloride: Such a pretty, Smurfy-Blue way to die.

[@PhoenixRising2040]

Silver Hydroxide on heating decomposes to give silver, oxygen gas and water.

[@thebarryman]

Wow, what a reaction! Great stuff Sreetips

[@LiborTinka]

Although sugar is readily available, other reductants such as formaldehyde or formate might give you much cleaner product.

[@sreetips]

I like sugar because it’s in everyone’s pantry

[@sreetips]

I didn’t know those would work.

[@SpartanONegative]

You are a great Alchemist Sreetips 🏴‍☠️✨

[@Pablo668]

Pretty fascinating stuff this. It's like practical chemistry.

[@corveramoenglish7275]

Hi Sreetips, thanks for the video. Over the many years I have been seeing you I was always amazed at your process. I don't know what types of deals you are getting for your nitric acid, but I think that you could profit from your copper nitrate solution. Nurdrage has a video about the full recovery of the nitric acid from the copper nitrate. On it he converts the CuNO3 to Copper sulfate using sulfuric acid and distills off the nitric acid, then he makes electrolysis of the copper sulfate to recover the metalic copper in a plate and the sulfuric acid remains separated. I don't know if it's going to be economical to you but check out that video

[@sreetips]

Settle completely, decant caustic sugar liquid. Add HCl to pH7 -

[@josephcormier5974]

Thank you sreetips for this very enjoyable video it's always a pleasure watching your channel I learn from you constantly six stars sir

[@sreetips]

Thank you!

[@matthewsemenuk7544]

Wouldn't scrap yards (with its own copper furnace) still take that contaminated copper? Maybe if that copper was melted into shot and let sit in water to rust out the ferrous metal? Just thinking of how to get a few bucks a lb for that stuff for scrap. Worst case might get brass prices?

[@sreetips]

They won’t touch it

[@gerard8496]

hey tips long time no see ,now your just showing what i like about you ever want to show your folks working my claim in new mex

[@NAFOARMY]

This is just the video I needed!

[@bedouintrader]

3:50 what was that tube between these two buckets ??

[@sreetips]

I used pvc tubing to transfer liquids.

[@bedouintrader]

@@sreetips I am talking about the tube with that rod inserted in the bucket lid ...

[@sreetips]

Oh, that’s connected to a fish tank air pump. I bubble air into it to create some movement of the liquid, to stir it.

[@brianevans1851]

Where do you dispose of treated chemicals ive alway wondered about that is there a place you take it or is it safe enough for thd drain asking because if i try to refine i want to be doing it properly that includes getting rid of the waste Happy Easter SREETIPS another great informative video

[@sreetips]

Happy Easter. I treat the liquid so that’s is almost safe enough to drink. I dry the metal hydroxides to moist cakes, add it to the land fill. But you should check with your local regs.

[@brianevans1851]

@@sreetips that is awesome I had no idea you could remove all the toxicity that is amazing I use to work for a hydrovac company we were tasked with clean up of toxic spills I know when that ammonia train derailed in Oklahoma years ago it took months we had to remove 6 foot of soil and send it to a plant to clean the soil and we had neutralizers as well we used that job took months and months even though it paid excellent money I had enough and got a job at Caterpillar much safer job and paid well but it was nasty that spill

[@ExtractingMetals]

The lye and sugar method produces a lot of waste. How do you process the waste?

[@bradleyj.fortner2203]

Yeah, this looks a lot more messy than using nitric acid and copper. Fortunately you don't have to do it very often and it does make good content. Thanks for another interesting video.

[@sreetips]

I know another refiner who swears by using lye and sugar to get pure silver. His claim is that you get 3 nines silver without using the silver cell, “and you get your palladium, if any, up front.”

[@richardwarnock2789]

Remembering found some old silver stash that someone back in 50's robbed buried along some road documented the guy got prison time because he got caught by finger prints before he could dig up loot got kill in a car accident ! I Had to turn the loot did get some the silver back in coins as a reward but left it with my mom when I was in the service then geuss what she was robbed ! 😂

[@sreetips]

That’s incredible.

[@حسينالجنرال-ش3ج]

Greetings, great work. I have silver chloride, but it is fossilized. I want to melt it again. What should I do?

[@sreetips]

A professional refiner once told me that the silver can be rendered by heating the silver chloride in a crucible with lots of sodium carbonate. But I’ve never tried it.

[@adamlyons4982]

I got my 1oz of silver crystals Saturday. I love them, they're so wild!

[@sreetips]

Excellent, thank goodness you!

[@jimwednt1229]

Nothing short of amazement! When i ponder the periodic table and chemistry in particular, i see everything follows a specific set of laws, I am not convinced that it's a result of pure chance

[@Matt-xw1xx]

According to wikipedia, silver hydroxide spontaneously decays to silver oxide and water.

[@chadvail4436]

If my first batch didn’t have enough lye , could I use the poor off and add more silver and start the reaction again ? I’m gunna try it because mine didn’t boil it got hot didn’t boil .. so now it’s settling I will wait till morning and see what kinda mess I have

[@sreetips]

I’ve had mine not boil.

[@chadvail4436]

@@sreetips I was not a fan of the lye and sugar method , I even bought the stick blender like you have so I could mix well and it was just a big headache , so I looked into other ways and found that if you take the washed silver chloride with just a little water and put it into a Pyrex dish with a couple drops of sulphuric acid and put aluminum (I used a heat sync off computer fan ) then cover it within hours it’s all converted like magic just rinse and melt !! There was a good video online about it not sure if you tried that method but for me never again will I use lye sugar … probably just copper to cement it out

[@sreetips]

@chadvail4436 I’ve seen the aluminum with sulfuric. But aluminum forms compounds that can be troublesome so I never use it in any of my processes.

[@clintongriffin2077]

Part 2 is just popcorn it after melting it to create for silver shot for the silver cell?

[@sreetips]

That’s it. But it will be much cleaner looking than the normal cement silver than I rendered with copper. You’ll see in part two.

[@johnsonaung9634]

Thank God bless you❤

[@marcyd2007]

Are you not able to take the copper that you recover and use it in your silver treatment bucket? Is it too impure? Surely you would just have to melt it into ingots and re-use it.

[@sreetips]

Clean copper for refining is cheap and plentiful. It would cost more to try to get the waste copper suitable to be used for refining.

[@Handle_number_7]

It hurts seeing copper wasted like that lol I know it isn't nearly as valuable as PM's. I actually call it red gold 😂 Perhaps one day when I attempt refining, I can conjure up an efficient process to collect most the metals. Funny thing is, I may find myself in a similar position tossing out the iron LOL! Now THAT'S cheap! Iron seems more like money than our fiat these days.. Seriously, Sreetips. Another excellent video!

[@WizardVespian]

Have you noticed how that brown liquid smells like burnt sugar? It’s because it is! the sugar, in reducing the silver oxide to silver metal, becomes oxidized itself.

[@sreetips]

I can’t smell it because the fume hood draws it away

[@GokouZWAR]

This is really amazing. Have you thought of using ice throughout the sugar phase to help control the temp or is the heat needed for a proper reaction?

[@sreetips]

I didn’t think of that. But at temps, ice wouldn’t last long. It was greater than the boiling point of water.

[@guachingman]

thought the bucket was for an ice bath, would that help in any way or do you want the boiling to happen

[@sreetips]

I don’t think ice would keep that reaction cool. I put it in the bucket to capture if it boiled over - that’s happened before.

[@jboyette]

I always wondered about the waste. I knew you didnt dump it down the drain. What an interesting setup you have. You ever get to go on vacation? Seems like you always have something to do or refine. Thanks for the great content. I dont know if I'll ever have enough scrap around to try. All the retiree's beat me to the good stuff. Ha.

[@kyzercube]

Sreetips, does the Silver Chloride have a " chlorine " smell to it or does it smell like something all together different?

[@sreetips]

I don’t think is has a smell,

[@sreetips]

I think it’s odorless, like table salt.

[@jakedee4117]

What is the purpose of the sugar in the reaction? Sugar is just carbon hydrogen and oxygen, right? Ts it there to add energy to the reaction ?

[@sreetips]

It has something to do with the carbon.

[@SpartanONegative]

Excellent Work Sreetips 🏴‍☠️ Thank you for sharing with us. God Bless 🙏 Hail Science 🧪

[@adamtheninjasmith2985]

So I have a question. Does it have to be "iron" in particular? Would mild steel work? I ask because technically mild steel would be more pure in elemental iron than "iron" as we call it. Mild steel should only be about 0.2 percent carbon and if I remember my metallurgy correctly the carbon percentage of what we call steel goes up to about 2.5 percent or so before we start calling it "iron". Most cast iron has much more carbon. Both have varying levels of alloying metals like manganese, nickel, etc based off of what it was originally alloyed for. Just a curious thought. 👍

[@adamtheninjasmith2985]

Lol never mind I just answered my question. I just rewound a bit and paid more attention after writing that comment.

[@sreetips]

There a certain grade, and the shop that I get it from saves it for me.

[@rafaelstauffer1]

Muito bom! Porque você não recupera o cobre também? Não poderia fundir ele novamente?

[@sreetips]

No, it’s heavily contaminated with other metals. Getting it suitable for use in refining silver would cost more than just buying clean copper. It’s cheap and plentiful.

[@rafaelstauffer1]

tnks now a I get @@sreetips

[@ElijahPerrin80]

I realize chlorine/ tap water is ok with NaCl but how is chloramine or the polyacrylamides used in flocculation among other minerals that preexisted or leach in during transport effect Silver Chloride?

[@sreetips]

I don’t know.

[@kurtremislettmyr7108]

shalom from norway brother

[@sreetips]

Shalom!

[@DenWhitton]

Instead of hydrochloric acid to precipitate the silver chloride, would salt work? It has the Cl ions for the chloride, and should give you sodium nitrate as waste. Unless you want the nitric acid as waste.

[@sreetips]

I’ve know it can be used, but I’ve never tried it. It’s so easy to just pour the acid.

[@Hannahbananasmile]

Why siphon out of the beakers instead of pouring? Less chance of powder leaving the beaker?

[@sreetips]

To prevent any silver chloride from leaving the beaker.

[@adambuysyuckyhouses]

My understanding is that ligjt and heat "reduce" or converts it. Again im flip houses im not a chemist what do u think the light does

[@sreetips]

Silver chloride reacts with light, that’s the basis of boomer photography. But today, people don’t print photos.

[@adambuysyuckyhouses]

@sreetips but what happens when it reacts i believe it converts it in someway to something different i am not a chemist matybe u can tell me or find out

[@sreetips]

I’m not sure what happens.

[@2001pulsar]

Adding some salt to the rinse water reduces the tendency of the silver to be suspended.

[@ciorchinos]

you can try to add some ice to it to controll it better

[@thebhut3446]

I got some silver chloride in my silver stock pot along with the cemented silver and other metals. Any tips on how to separate that when I go to refine my silver stock pot?

[@sreetips]

If it were mine, and I had silver chloride in my silver stock pot, I’d just ignore it and dissolve everything in nitric to start with. Then just filter it out with the insoluble gold and PGMs.

[@Ilovegold]

Kinda off video topic for the day, so the aqua regia will put the gold foils from GF material because it’s so thin? If so can I put real thin karat material into a GF batch? Like say earring studs beat flat?

[@sreetips]

I don’t know, I’ve never tried that. But it seems like it should. The only problem is if there’s lots of silver in the karat alloy of that beaten gold.

[@wadebert4458]

Curious. How do you prove for Silver Chloride? I have a 2500 ml beaker with red solution. No reaction from testing with Stanous. As the solution is Red, I can't tell if the is a reaction from Swartz, as Swartz is orange to begin with. I tried 22K testing solution also. No reaction. It's definitely something, I just have no idea what. Any thoughts, my friend? Palladium, Platinum, Rhodium?

[@sreetips]

I get a sample and add a few drops of HCl to test for silver n solution. Stannous will detect palladium, platinum or rhodium.

[@carlburdick1855]

Are you ever tempted to use surfactants with powdery pmgs?

[@sreetips]

I’ve never tried it

[@carlburdick1855]

@sreetips I see a lot of people using Jet Dry dish detergent when panning fine gold, but if I were you, I would definitely research any potential reactions before implementing it.

[@michaelcocayne8395]

Sreetips, have you run the cost on making copper through electrolysis ? I heard it Pennies to run and you will get the slimes to process for other precious metals…

[@sreetips]

No, I don’t spend much time with copper. I can get clean copper for refining. It’s cheap and plentiful.

[@ciorchinos]

I am curious how do you know it spatters averiwhere 🙄😬

[@sreetips]

Because it happened to me once.

[@freddurstedgebono6029]

Would love to see a copper refining cell. The copper purified could probably at least cover some costs of like acids and other consumables

[@sreetips]

It would cost more in supplies and fuel than it would to just buy it. Clean copper is cheap and plentiful.

[@Lancelot.666]

Love the content my friend. Have you ever refined gold nuggets?

[@sreetips]

No, but I’ve refined placer gold.

[@shaneyork300]

When you put the sugar in its like its got a mind of its own!

[@sreetips]

Like a two hundred degree monster.

[@kimberlynolz5725]

Which one u think drops a cleaner gold oxolic acid or copperous, (iron sulfate)?

[@sreetips]

They say oxalic acid is a “polishing step” which means it’s best used on gold that’s fairly high purity to begin with. Ferrous sulfate is good for gold in solution with PGMs.

[@kimberlynolz5725]

Wats the trick to using oxolic? All attempts so far have failed

[@sreetips]

Both solutions must be very hot, boiling if possible. Plus the pH of the oxalic acid solution must because up around pH5 or higher before the reaction will work properly. I used ammonia to raise the pH of the oxalic acid, because that’s what book calls for.

[@willy480able]

I think you make Bigstack cry when you throw out copper.

[@sreetips]

I don’t he’d like the highly contaminated copper from my waste treatment bucket. It’s pretty much waste at that point.

[@benjaminforman8901]

🤣🤣 I can see his subtitles now... "But... but the COPPER!!!😭😭" LOL

[@johannesdesloper8434]

I think the brown coloured water is from caramelized sugar.

[@wayneneher6362]

Chief, with the price of copper going up you might want to salvage the copper from your treatment buckets.

[@sreetips]

Even if it doubles, spending time to recover and refine it suitable for use would be way more than just buying clean copper. Even double, it’s still cheap and plentiful.

[@wayneneher6362]

@@sreetips I don't think I'd refine it much further than it cements out, just go bulk buckets and recycle it. Just a random thought from a fan.

[@MrTk6969]

Have you ever had this reaction not GO. A few times I went to convert AgCl to Ag and it never converted to Ag. It just stayed as AgO.

[@sreetips]

I’ve never had that happen.

[@BadPete81]

Have you ever tried to reduce silver from silver chloride by letting it to be in sunlight?

[@sreetips]

No

[@rallyefilmer]

I understand it looks spectecular with the hot, boiling liquid, but its although dangerous. Do you know how to support a exotermic reaction ?

[@sreetips]

Very carefully?

[@rallyefilmer]

@@sreetips with cooling my friend. The moment you put it in the bucket, i thought you fill it with (cool) water, to avoid this boiling and spilling of the hot caustic solution.

[@sreetips]

No, I put it in the bucket to collect any boil over. I’ve seen it overflow.

[@rallyefilmer]

@@sreetips Yes I see, endothermic reaction you support with heat, because the reaction need energy from arround, if not it cools down, with exothermic its its the other way round. Best regards

[@wesleysmith995]

This is cool , but why didn't you use a very fine filter to separate it. Would have been quicker, and less time consuming.

[@sreetips]

Didn’t think of it

[@bedouintrader]

how sodium Hydroxide converts silver chloride to silver oxide ??? I thought (and learned in the school) it converts to silver hydroxide

[@sreetips]

I don’t know, but I found this on balancing chemical equations: 2AgCl + 2NaOH = Ag2O + 2NaCl + H2O as a legitimate chemical equation. I’m not a trained chemist.

[@sreetips]

Source: chemicalaid.com

[@timsmith9645]

Great video can't wait until next video and melt into silver bar thanks for sharing sreetips