Using Potentiostats Separation of Iridium

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fastback19

fastback19

Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2023
Messages
7
Location
COLOMBIA
Greetings all,

Before we jump into the topic, please note
I am no scientist.
I am no chemist.
I am not a refiner.
I am just curious person hiring the right people to do the job.

We’ve been working on a project of separating iridium from platinum.
Perhaps some of you might ask well, how are you? Sure that it’s ~iridium? ~
We've done all the test possible.

We are currently experimenting with Potentiostat.

Have any of you worked with this form of separation?
 
fastback19 said:
Greetings all,

Before we jump into the topic, please note
I am no scientist.
I am no chemist.
I am not a refiner.
I am just curious person hiring the right people to do the job.

We’ve been working on a project of separating iridium from platinum.
Perhaps some of you might ask well, how are you? Sure that it’s ~iridium? ~
We've done all the test possible.

We are currently experimenting with Potentiostat.

Have any of you worked with this form of separation?
Click to expand...
You mean electrolytic separation?
A potentiostat is just control mechanism for a 3 cell electrolytic setup according to my short research.
So what about making it work in a one cell setup first?
 
If you say that you are just a curious person and claim that “we have done all possible tests,” then who are "we"? Did any professional geologist or geochemist provide you with independent expert conclusions about PGM mineralization?
What is your confirmed iridium genesis type?
Can you provide the name of the mineral, and related types of platinum metals (Pt-Pd-Rh; Os-Ru-Rh; Ir-Pd) paired with Ir after professional geological testing of your ore?
 
Yggdrasil said:
You mean electrolytic separation?
A potentiostat is just control mechanism for a 3 cell electrolytic setup according to my short research.
So what about making it work in a one cell setup first?
Click to expand...
I assume that this means the electrochemical dissolution of iridium.
 
Are you working with ores or alloys? The answer to this question will determine the most of the answers given here.

What tests were performed? What were the results of each test? Your answers to these questions tell us if the correct tests were done.

Time for more coffee.
 
To separate iridium, you need to know what exactly to separate from, and most importantly, why.
Even platinum cannot be completely purified from it.
 
Could he have possibly meant that they are recovering pm's that are in Potentiostat's ?

Definitely didn't give much information about exactly what they are needing to do, seems to be the trend lately.

Sometimes I think that most people do not understand just how vast refining is and maybe they believe that we all are refining the same type of material that they are seeking information about.

There's literally thousands of different materials that are refined and just as many different methods to refine each type.
 
A potentiostat is a conventional digital electronic control device with current and voltage feedback. All it can do is maintain the required current and voltage in an electrolytic cell of any type, responding to changes in the conductivity of the electrolyte.

Such a device, for example, is necessary for the electrolysis of a gold thiourea solution, where the voltage must be constant between 0.36 and no more than 0.4 volts, with current limiting, since the resistance of the solution is constantly falling due to the accumulation of sulfuric acid.
If you do not use current stabilization and voltage control, then the redissolution of gold at the cathode starts.

Therefore, the potentiostat itself has nothing to do with iridium :)

It is a device for automatically monitoring the specified parameters of current and voltage during the ANY electrolysis process.

Inert reference electrodes are usually made of platinum.
Iridium may be present as an impurity and cannot be removed from the electrode metal.

P. S. And a potentiostat is quite easy to make yourself, from a couple of dozen electronic components, if you have minimal skills in basic electronics. The most expensive thing there is an inert reference electrode.

P. P. S. Or just buy an ordinary PID regulator (proportional–integral–derivative controller) for $300-500 with 2 pairs of voltage and current analog inputs and connect reference inert electrode to one of them, and the other pair to anode and cathode and set the required parameters on its digital display :) That's all.
 
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Golddigger76 said:
Could he have possibly meant that they are recovering pm's that are in Potentiostat's ?

Definitely didn't give much information about exactly what they are needing to do, seems to be the trend lately.

Sometimes I think that most people do not understand just how vast refining is and maybe they believe that we all are refining the same type of material that they are seeking information about.

There's literally thousands of different materials that are refined and just as many different methods to refine each type.
Click to expand...
I believe he is talking about ores.
At least that is what has done before.
 
Greetings all,

Thanks for the response & interaction with the topic.
Let's hope we can all learn something from this.

The material comes from ore, it's mixed with other PGM metals & Gold.

The test we've done is with ICP, I believe is the most accurate test; please correct me if I'm wrong.

The types of metals found in the ore are Osmion, platinum, ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium.

I don't know the right way of process but I know the potentiostat equipment is being used to experiment on the separation.

electrochemical separation is something I heard is what the big refineries use. I believe it is different from using a potentiostat as less of equipment is used, is this correct?
 
fastback19 said:
The types of metals found in the ore are Osmion, platinum, ruthenium, rhodium, and iridium.

I don't know the right way of process but I know the potentiostat equipment is being used to experiment on the separation.
Click to expand...
The only right way to process your ore is to have it done by a professional in a properly equipped lab. Osmium and ruthenium are both HIGHLY toxic and hazardous. You may not find a refiner that wants to touch it because of those two elements.

Dave
 
Platinum in 99.99% of cases does NOT occur together with osmium, since platinum minerals crystallize in a very dense cubic packing and osmium and osmiridium only in the densest hexagonal packing.
As a result, they cannot be isomorphic to each other even theoretically.

So, I can almost guarantee that your information about PGM mineralization is incorrect.
 
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A potentiostat is an analytical device so far as I know. It takes all three cells to make it work. And it is not really a device that can separate much more than microgram quantities. I don’t want to be rude to the person whos post this is, but are you sure you are qualified to ask this question. ( understanding of the information needed to answer the question is lacking) or are you possibly an investor or corporate officer who has information in front of you and can not make sense of it or fail to understand the complexity of the separation of PGM from one another on both the analytical or commercial level. Either way the information to do your due diligence is not really available without a lot of money paid to specialists who understand this is almost on par with the separation of rare earth metals and is only commonly exceeded by the separation of hafnium from zirconium. The pgm elements are related to each other by the placement of them in transition metals on the periodic table, meaning that they behave in similar electrical ways, but they do not have the same crystallographic properties and as such they don’t occur together for the most part. In fact they barely occur at all ( I seem to remember that the highest yields in the Bushveld complex are around 9gr per ton and that the working ore is rarely over 3gr per ton). Very specific techniques are used and they are not as far as I know published except perhaps as overviews of strategy somewhere. Highly competitive, dangerous, toxic ( that mean dangerous times 2 ), and expensive. The list of properties is not in any notable order or relationship they just fit everywhere in the cycle. Its time to pay or cut bait and run my friend. You are not going to get any useful information without someone smart getting hands on and you giving them the time they need, and is it worth it? You answer that one.
 
Maybe the topic starter confused the concepts of “high ionization potential” of platinum metals with “potentiostat”?
There also exists an electrochemical amperometric method for determining (!) (and not separating) platinum metals in an electrolytic cell (Beyermann K. Z. Analyt. Chem, 200, 161, 183, 1964)
 
Ultrax said:
Maybe the topic starter confused the concepts of “high ionization potential” of platinum metals with “potentiostat”?
There also exists an electrochemical amperometric method for determining (!) (and not separating) platinum metals in an electrolytic cell (Beyermann K. Z. Analyt. Chem, 200, 161, 183, 1964)
Click to expand...
I suggest we let the OP chime in with some more info.
 

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