getting platinum out of platnic chloride??? refining?

chong2

Bronze Member
Apr 25, 2006
2,041
141
El Paso, TX
Detector(s) used
Flippin Stick n good luck :)
ill try again, maybe someone knows now......
awhile back i found a assayers stash of bottles. one of them is labled platnic chloride. there is no longer any liquid in the bottle, but a bunch of white powder inside. so does this contain platinum? i was told yes, and is very expensive. so what can i do with this stuff? how much platinum is inside it?
HELP PLEASE ;D
 

Hey Chong2

I can’t give you an exact answer to your question for several reasons (I don’t know the total quantity or quality of what you have), but I can give you some info on platinic chloride (platinum chloride or chloroplatinic acid) that may be useful to you.

The formula for platinum chloride is PtCl4, which means one part platinum to four parts chloride. So if what you found was a standard (pure) sample of platininc chloride, it would be 1/5 platinum by weight.

BUT, the chemical text books properties description of platonic chloride is; a brown solid, red crystals, soluble in water and alcohol. You said that your bottle contains only a dry white powder, which does not match the description of either platinum chloride or chloroplatinic acid, so there are some doubts of what really is in the bottles. The chloroplatinic acid I use is a red/brown liquid and is used as a comparison standard for assay work, but I never used it as a concentrate.

Because platinum minerals are never found as a rich ore, it’s a normal procedure in assaying to dilute a known standard down to a more realistic testing amount of about 10% or less, depending on the ore you are testing. Because of the color of your powder, I’m guessing that is what you might have found. If you have access to a muffle oven, you could wrap a few grams of the powder in some test lead and cupel it to determine Pt content or just send some off to a lab for analysis.

Without some real tests, it’s anyone’s guess to what the white powder is, and it’s true value. Also, if it is chloroplatinic acid, it may be worth more in that form than the extracted platinum, again, depending upon purity.

When you find out what the white powder is, post the info.

Good luck,

John
 

thank you john for your reply, i will for sure post if i find anything out. thanks again!!!!!!
 

Aqua Regia (royal water) will separate the precious metal from your sample. Now I don’t know if it is worth trying to extract, that's because aqua regia is sort of expensive to make.
 

pro, should i post up in general view, or should i pm them? have they talked about a specific method ? i have searches and came up with nothing...... pm if it will help. thanks pro, and all!!!!!!
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top