RE: Misc: Silver Reclaimation (from Silver Staining)

H. Noer (hnoer@edgebio.com)
Wed, 24 Nov 1999 08:37:01 -0500

It is also important to note that many companies and municipalities have
limits on the amount of Silver that can be put down the drain. Check with
your company on the policies.

Hal Noer

-----Original Message-----
From: Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities
[mailto:abrf-request@aecom.yu.edu]On Behalf Of David A. Schooley
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 1999 8:07 PM
To: Recipients of ABRF List
Subject: Re: Misc: Silver Reclaimation (from Silver Staining)

Chuck-
I DON'T think you are wasting your time- it is a
non-renewable resource! All the more so if you are generating a LOT
of waste. You can easily precipitate the Ag as an halide salt
(chloride is obviously cheapest), and the flocculent precipitate is
easily filtered. In old chemistry handboooks there are receipes for
putting AgCl in a crucible with charcoal and a flux (sodium carbonate
as I recall), and heating it in a muffle furnace to around 1000 deg
C. You get a big button of metallic As, MP 960 C.
Most "insoluble" silver salts are soluble in STRONG ammonia!
When I lived in Palo Alto, CA, they SOLD their sewage sludge
to a gold mining company to reclaim traces of gold from
electroplating waste from all the local semiconductor companies!
David
David A. Schooley
Dept. of Biochemistry/330
Univ. of Nevada
Reno, NV 89557
schooley@unr.edu
tel: (775) 784-4136; fax (775) 784-1419
NOTE NEW AREA CODE: Mandatory after 5/15/99