[Jewelry making - Article 00026] - [Orchid] Ferric nitrate + potassium??

[John Burgess]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========


>         adding potassium to the spent, silver nitrate laden solution,
>     and precipitating everything out (presumably this renews the
>     original ferric nitrate) 

    G'day.  Sorry; I think you would need to replace the spent ferric
    nitrate with fresh material. I am afraid I am going to be what many
    people will feel to be "academic". However I believe I have to
    mention that when talking about  'inorganic' salts which are
    composed of a metal part and an acid part, such as ferric nitrate or
    ferric chloride  that one should really mention the whole name.   I
    am specifically referring to the suggestion of  'adding potassium'
    to ferric nitrate containing silver nitrate. 

    Now the metal potassium is a silvery white metal so soft it can be
    easily cut with a blunt knife like butter.  It is violently reactive
    in contact with water, will rush about on the surface of the water,
    catch fire and probably explode.  Yet salts of potassium  are often
    pretty harmless. Example; potassium chloride, potassium sulphate,
    etc. 

    I  believe the idea in the quotation given above was really to add
    potassium CHLORIDE  to the solution, and so the chloride part would
    combine with the silver in the spent solution  producing silver
    chloride which is quite insoluble. If the liquid is then well shaken
     the silver chloride precipitate will clump and thus become easy to
    filter out. If this is washed, then  dissolved in sodium or
    potassium cyanide solution, it can be recovered by electroplating
    out as pure silver on a stainless steel electrode. I would also point
    out that when sodium or potassium chloride is added, the potassium
    or sodium part  will replace the silver part of the ferric nitrate
    and silver nitrate, but render the solution far less active. 

-- 
Cheers for now,
John Burgess;   johnb AT ts.co.nz of Mapua, Nelson NZ


-- 


____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________