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Punk
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Synthesis of Nickel Acetate?
Tried googling it but no luck 
Is there an easy "household" way to make Nickel Acetate?
I know its easy to purchase online but id rather make my own.
Some coins, vinegar and a power supply maybe?
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not_important
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There's been a bit of discussion at http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=8165
Nickel coins often don't have that much nickel in them, US nickels are only 1/4 nickel. So the first task is to separate the copper and nickel, after
that convert whatever form of nickel you have to the acetate.
Just using vinegar as is will not give very pure nickel acetate, there's other organics in it. If you want a fairly pure product you will either need
to make your own acetic acid or acetates, or isolated the acetic acid in vinegar.
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UnintentionalChaos
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I've been able to recrystallize some (presumably) clean copper acetate from distilled white vinegar. If it was really dirty stuff, I don't think such
nice crystals would be able to form.
Department of Redundancy Department - Now with paperwork!
'In organic synthesis, we call decomposition products "crap", however this is not a IUPAC approved nomenclature.' -Nicodem
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unionised
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Distilled (white) vinegar is pretty clean dilute acetic acid. The brown stuff is full of sugars and stuff.
There's a lot of copper in those coins and copper's not easy to dissolve in straight acid. You might try PCB etchants to dissolve the coins then
separate the Ni and Cu somehow.
In principle Nickel cadmium batteries are a good source of Ni, but Cd is really not nice.
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not_important
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Try making a little sodium acetate from your white vinegar, and see if it doesn't turn out tan instead of white. If it does come out white, then stick
with that label of vinegar, otherwise you've a little more work to do.
When crystallising stuff, you'd be surprised how much inorganic and organic junk can be in those crystals. That's part of the reason for a
recrystallization, reducing the concentration of the impurities gives a chance for the desired crystals to be relatively pure.
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Punk
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It is not that difficult to obtain coins that are fairly pure nickel and white distilled vinegar, I just need to know what to do with them to end up
with some Nickel Acetate.
My chem knoledge is not advanced enough to tell me what will happen if I stuck nickel on a dc power supply and dipped the electrodes into a cup of 5%
acetic acid.
If it is plausable:
Would the nickel go on + or -?
Would salt need to be added?
What should the other electrode be made of?
Thanks
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BromicAcid
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You would want your anode to be nickel, that is the electrode that will dissolve.
As for your cathode, I would just make it nickel as well. I used to use electrolysis to make nickel sulfate solutions like that. Your problem is
that your nickel is going to want to re-plate out on your cathode. I overcame this with aggressive high amp electrolysis so it would dissolve the
anode much faster than it would plate out on the cathode, but the solution heats up a lot so you have to run it in bursts. Just keep adding more of
your distilled white vinegar as the volume of solution drops from evaporation.
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garage chemist
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I made nickel chloride by what I call "biphasic electrolysis", the anode is nickel and reaches to the bottom of the electrolyte (dilute HCl) and the
cathode is copper, steel, graphite, whatever you have and only inserts less than a cm into the electrolyte.
On electrolysis, concentrated NiCl2 solution is produced at the anode, and sinks down because of its higher density. It deposits at the bottom of the
container as a heavy green layer.
It never reaches the cathode, at which hydrogen is produced.
It is essential that no mixing occurs, but that is easy to achieve if the current is kept low so that the hydrogen evolution does not cause mixing.
This is also the reason that the cathode must insert only very little into the electrolyte ("surface elecrode").
By keeping the current constant and measuring the time, you can calculate how much nickel went into solution (or easier by weighing the anode before
and after electrolysis), so you know to which weight you have to evaporate the electrolyte in order to obtain NiCl2*6H2O.
I am not sure if acetic acid instead of HCl will work though. If it doesn't, you will have to precipitate Ni(OH)2 from a nickel salt solution (like
NiCl2, which is easy to make like I described) by adding NaOH solution, filter and wash, and react with acetic acid.
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woelen
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My experience with precipitating reactions for making chemicals is not really good. I tried many times, with different precipitates.
Theory says that a solution of nickel chloride and sodium hydroxide will give a precipitate of Ni(OH)2 and the rest remains in solution. In reality
things are MUCH more complicated. The process of precipitation is a process of forming all kinds of polynuclear oxobridged and hydroxobridges species,
which at the right pH form macroscopic networks. Such networks, however, usually incorporate chloride ions and sodium ions as well. These are
coprecipitated, but they are really part of the network and cannot be rinsed out. So, in reality you won't get pure Ni(OH)2, but something like
Ni(OH)2, with many OH-groups replaced by chloride ions, and also sodium ions in it.
Of course you can make purer salts with the precipitation methods, but that definitely requires at least one recrystallization.
This effect of coprecipitation, btw, can nicely be seen with dilute copper (II) chloride and dilute copper (II) sulfate. If a solution of NaOH is
added, then in both cases you get a precipitate, but there is a clearly visible difference in the color of the precipitate. Virtually all
precipitation reactions suffer from coprecipitation, but the transition metal chlorides are most notorious, due to the good complexing/coordinating
properties of chloride ion.
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Punk
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| Quote: | Originally posted by BromicAcid
You would want your anode to be nickel, that is the electrode that will dissolve.
As for your cathode, I would just make it nickel as well. I used to use electrolysis to make nickel sulfate solutions like that. Your problem is
that your nickel is going to want to re-plate out on your cathode. I overcame this with aggressive high amp electrolysis so it would dissolve the
anode much faster than it would plate out on the cathode, but the solution heats up a lot so you have to run it in bursts. Just keep adding more of
your distilled white vinegar as the volume of solution drops from evaporation. |
Thanks Im trying it now.
Is the solid green looking crap what i want or can I filter that out and my half assed nickel acetate will be in solution?
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Chemistry Alchemist
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Australian Currency is made from an alloy of 75% Copper and 25% Nickel... When i add some 5c coins to some hot acetic acid, no reaction occurs but
when i add some H2O2 to the hot solution bubbling occurs and the solution begins to turn to a light blue colour, would this be Nickel(II) Acetate
forming? it doesn't look anything like the Copper(II) Acetate ive made the same way...
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Neil
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The level of 'free' nickel in coins is legislated as it is regarded as toxic
For large amounts of nickel, short of purchasing nickel metal you could give purchasing the oxide, from a pottery supply house, a try.
You could also purchase the oxide reduce it with Al and then make use of the metal.
Or just try soaking the oxide in acetic and seeing if enough reacts to work for you
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Endimion17
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What's the legal status of dissolving coins in your country? It's illegal here, because it's "destruction of currency" or something like that, but I
doubt anyone would face charges for dissolving half kilogram of coins. It's just ridiculous.
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Wizzard
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Canadian nickels from 1922 to 1942 are nearly pure nickel, and 46-51. Modern US nickels are still 25% nickel.
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Chemistry Alchemist
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Im pretty sure its not illigal unless u put them back into circulation and the 5 cent coin is fading out now a bit... any im only using about 70c
worth...
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phlogiston
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Depending on the currency that you were intending to use, perhaps NiMH batteries could be a cheaper source.
Also, ceramic supply stores often sell NiO.
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m1tanker78
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See the following thread for a discussion on this topic...
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=16811
Through electrolysis, it's possible to simultaneously dissolve cupronickel and selectively reduce out some of the copper from the cell liquor. I
posted a few images in that thread - including one where I nickel plated a scrap piece of copper pipe afterward.
Tank
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Chemistry Alchemist
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Will Nickel Acetate react with Aluminium to precipitate Nickel or not or will i need a better acid like Hydrochloric or Sulfuric Acid to precipitate
nickel?
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Endimion17
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Quote: Originally posted by Chemistry Alchemist  | | Im pretty sure its not illigal unless u put them back into circulation and the 5 cent coin is fading out now a bit... any im only using about 70c
worth... |
It seems things have changed.
Melting or dissolving, it's basically the same. It's ruining a physical form of money, regardless of the fact you're going to keep it.
Supposedly, it was legal to destroy money (melt/dissolve metals, shred paper) in USA, but now it isn't.
I've been searching for the composition of currency in my country, and it seems that extracting nickel from alloys used wouldn't be very viable. Cheap
coins have only like 5% nickel, and the more expensive ones have almost 25%, and they contain zinc and copper.
Nickel is really hard to find. Chromium, too.
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Chemistry Alchemist
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our silver coins only have Nickel and Copper, gold coins have Nickel, Zinc and Copper... yeah im in the process of refining Chromium from paint but i
need HCl desperately for it haha, i want titanium or vanadium... i can find ways to refine titanium from titanium dioxide but i dont know any source
of vanadium
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ScienceSquirrel
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Laws making the destruction of money illegal date back to when it was made of precious metals.
If the government could issue notes safe in the knowledge that a lot of the population were happily burning them it could issue extra money to
compensate.
Small countries with collectable currencies or special issues of notes are effectively free money for the government concerned as they are issued but
out of circulation.
It is also an issue when the coins are worth more in metal terms than the face value, eg copper coins in the UK but they are being replaced by steel
cored copper plated coins that are worth less than the face value.
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phlogiston
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Ceramics supply stores sell the oxides of vanadium, nickel and chromium. They are not hard to get at all via this route, and it is perfectly legal.
[Edited on 14-10-2011 by phlogiston]
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Arthur Dent
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| Quote: Originally posted by Wizzard | | Canadian nickels from 1922 to 1942 are nearly pure nickel, and 46-51. Modern US nickels are still 25% nickel. |
Actually, from the mid-fifties right up to 1981, all canadian nickels were made out of solid nickel 99.9%.
You'll always find some pre 80's coins in a handful of canadian nickels, this is my main source for pure nickel. I must have 30/35 coins in my
"Elemental Nickel" jar right now and keep collecting them in my loose change weekly.
Robert
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Chemistry Alchemist
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My solution seems to be contaminated with copper aswell as nickel (found out my placing some wire on and copper started to form on the wire... does
nickel also do that? could i just leach bother metals out of solution, then add HCl to the metals, redissolving the nickel, filter and then then add
more iron or aluminium to the solution to leach out nickel?
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cyanureeves
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o.k. now you surely need to go to the post m1tanker78 is referring you to. as it stands, most folks there have a bit of copper contamination in
their nickel. from the chloride it was easily turned to the carbonate then rather easily as well turned to the acetate afterwards with vinegar. the
oxide is a bit more difficult for me. removing the copper is a total headache and as of yet no one tried ascorbic acid to separate nickel from
copper.ammonium hydroxide has worked for some not for me and has even had a baffling result for another. good luck!
[Edited on 15-10-2011 by cyanureeves]
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