Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Tin from Solder

Abromination - 15-12-2018 at 12:51

Doing some research on the forum, it seems a decent amount of people have tried to extract tin from solder with little success. I've found that it really isnt that hard just to electrolyze a solution of sodium chloride with a solder anode and copper cathode.
Lead chloride precipitates out leaving a stannous chloride solution which can be electrolyzed to form tin crystals.

DavidJR - 15-12-2018 at 14:18

You can also get lead free solders, many of which are substantially tin and contain only small amounts of other metals like copper and silver.

VSEPR_VOID - 16-12-2018 at 17:35

lead sulfate and chloride I believe are insoluble

12thealchemist - 17-12-2018 at 01:38

Lead chloride is noticeably more soluble in solutions where there is already a high chloride concentration.

DraconicAcid - 17-12-2018 at 09:11

Lead will form complex ions with excess chloride, so some of it will stay in solution. The sulphate may be a better choice- it doesn't coordinate nearly as well.

ave369 - 19-12-2018 at 23:32

I did a tin-lead separation by dissolving solder in nitric acid. Lead went into solution as lead nitrate, and tin ended up in precipitate as, I think, tin dioxide or stannic acid. Of course, it was actually lead I was after, and the dioxide was discarded.

Fyndium - 25-9-2020 at 06:33

My tin contains 99.3% Sn and 0.7% Cu. I wonder if it could be useful in any chemistry applications.