Chemistry_Keegan
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Seperation Of Silver From An Alloy
I have an alloy of eighty percent silver and twenty percent copper, and would like to separate the silver from it so I can have a pure sample for my
element collection. Does anyone know how I should go about doing this? I don't really care about the copper, so it would be nice if there was an acid
(or other liquid) that could dissolve it but not the silver. If there isn't an easily obtainable liquid that can do that, I don't mind, as long as you
have a simple method where my end product will be pure silver.
[Edited on 10-3-2013 by Chemistry_Keegan]
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Mixell
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Ferric ions should dissolve the copper and leave the silver behind. You can also also dissolve everything in nitric acid or sulfuric+hydrogen peroxide
and add some copper wire after all of the alloy has dissolved. Remember to use stoichiometrical amounts (with a small excess) of the acid.
The second method is preferable, as it will yield nice looking crystalline silver. Allow the redox reaction to go to completion (you can even leave it
for a few days) and harvest the crystals.
Rinse them with water a few times, may be even allow them to sit in water for a couple of hours. Then just dry them (you can rinse them in some low
boiling-point organic solvent to replace the water with that solvent and speed up the drying process).
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blogfast25
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There are countless threads on this forum on the separation of silver from common metals. Do use the search facility, it's less obvious than you might
think if you care about the quality of the silver obtained.
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DraconicAcid
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Dissolve them both in a minimum of nitric acid, then add copper shavings to displace the silver.
Please remember: "Filtrate" is not a verb.
Write up your lab reports the way your instructor wants them, not the way your ex-instructor wants them.
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