Palladium from Monolithic Capacitors

All,

After a two week rest, I've started back on the PGM DVD today.

Here's a shot of the larger batch of Palladium I dropped today.:



This batch went much easier than the small test run that I tried previously. I Added 3 tsp of dry ammonium chloride to the mother liquor and then heated slightly above room temperature. I then added 1/4 tsp of sodium chlorate with lots of stirring and the red powder dropped right out without any troubles. I noticed a lot of bubbling this time around.

Here's a shot of the filtered red powder. This time it came down more maroon like Harold had previously mentioned. :



I'll post more when I get it dried and weighed.

Steve

Steve,
That looks like the results I got from the organ wire
that I processed. I wasn't sure if it worked out right,
as it didn't seem like powder like the gold, it seemed
more like a paste. I put it in a little dish to dry, and
still haven't got an oxygen torch setup to melt it yet.
I will add a picture of what I have now with it dried.
Jim
The pictures don't show the red color, it looks more
like it is brown or tan in the pictures. It looked like
your pictures when I first precipitated it and filtered
it. I am really curious to see how it works out when
I get an oxygen torch.
Jim

Jim,

Mine came out like the texture of gold powder after drying. Here's how it looks right now:



I think yours may have turned out like a paste from too much ammonium chloride in the rinse solution. I cut back on the ammonium chloride saturation level in my rinse solution to a 25% ammonium chloride solution. I didn't have any problems with the rinse solution dissolving the red powder. The color of mine is more maroon.

I've found some more literature for the calcination process that I'm going to try on a sample of the red powder.

Steve

Steve,
Do you think extra ammonium chloride will cause a problem
when torching it? The color came up very red or maroon on
my camera lcd screen, and on here it looks brown?
It looked exactly like the picture of yours in the filter when
I first did it, it has been sitting for a few weeks now undisturbed.
It seemed very sticky and clingy when I did it, that is why I
let it dry for a while. Jim

Jim,

The extra ammonium chloride will just cause some extra gassing/ smoke when calcined. The excess AC is most likely why yours is like a paste. AC forms a paste when its solutions are evaporated.

Steve

Steve,
I will post a picture when I get it back to metal.
You may beat me to it with yours.
Jim

jimdoc said:

I am really curious to see how it works out when I get an oxygen torch.
Jim

Click to expand...

I trust you understand that you do NOT melt the red powder? If you do so, you'll lose some in the fumes.

The calcining process should be carried out at a slow rate, slow enough that the fumes that come off the red powder don't leave a color other than white on a cold object held in the smoke plume. With a high temperature burner such as a Fisher, and a Coors crucible can be used for the calcining process, but a fused quartz dish will serve better. The Coors porcelain products are subject to thermal shock and break easily.

When you calcine your palladium to sponge, it will undergo a shrinkage of about 500% ------and will end up with beautiful peacock colors of blue, green and pink. They are the oxides of palladium, and should be reduced before melting. If you haven't studied Hoke concerning this process, I suggest you do so before taking the plunge.

Also-----a common melting dish won't serve well because of the extreme temperature involved. Check with a jewelry supply house in your area for a melting dish for high temperature alloys. They're white in color and will resist the temperatures you need to melt palladium. Be certain to wear proper eye protection as well------you will be working at temperatures above 2,800°F, and can cause radiation burning much like you get from arc welding. Platinum is worse yet.

Harold

Harold,
Thanks for the info, I will wait to get the proper melting dish.
I already plan on getting the right eye protection also, from
your previous recomendations. I should also read through
Hoke's book again.
Thanks. Jim

Steve,

How many Monolithics did you start out with? What value capacitance (wondering if different values yield more or less pmg)? Is it just Palladium in the mono's or are there other PMG's in them?

I am looking forward to your results.

Dennis

I learn something new every time I poke around here. What I'm familiar with being called monolithic capacitors are the cheap dipped ceramics commonly used as bypass caps. After some looking on the internet I see they're more properly referred to as Monolithic Radial Capacitors.

Several places on this forum I've seen surface mount capacitors also being referred to as monolithic capacitors. What I didn't know is that they're actually called Monolithic Chip Capacitors, or more generically SMD Capacitors (SMD for surface-mounted device).

It doesn't really matter as long as everybody knows which is being referred to. I guess it should be apparent since the dipped ceramics are worthless as scrap, and the surface mounted caps are a source of palladium.

http://www.rjcomponents.com/stock/capacitors.asp

macfixer01