Gold Recovery with Vinegar & Peroxide – Did It Work This Time

Can you really recover gold using vinegar and hydrogen peroxide or is it just a shiny myth?
In this video i am continuing to experiment with how to recover gold from gold-plated fingers without using dodgy and dangerous chemicals.

[knightstar]

About over 1 year ago I did this in a 20 liter pail with various parts of computer boards and pins plated with gold. The solution was 3 liters of 10% vinegar and 1 cup of salt, I stir the solution to dissolve some of the salt then I added a bottle of 375 ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide, stirred it and let it rest and do its own thing outside, with a lid loosely sitting on top to keep leaf debris from entering to pail.

One month later I checked the result. This solution dissolved all the tin and lead from all the computer board pieces. Some had thick soldering. The gold plating did not dissolve, not even from gold finger boards. But it did a great job at loosening all the components from the computer board so that the components came off by just pulling them off with my fingers. Once the computer board parts were removed and rinsed, the solution was filtered to capture the loose computer components. This solution can be reused to dissolve more solder till its saturated and won't dissolve any more solder. I am sure the solution now contains lead, tin and silver because that's what computer solder is made of. If I want to precipitate the lead I will have to add a little battery acid, sulfuric acid, a little at a time, till it drops the lead and then filter that off. Or I could let the solution evaporate till all the solder is left in the pail for recovery.

• Vinegar and peroxide makes paracetic acid. It does not dissolve gold.
• Vinegar and salt makes a weak hydrochloric acid. It does not dissolve gold.
• Vinegar and salt and peroxide added makes a souped up weak hydrochloric acid. This will not dissolve gold.
• Vinegar needs to be glacial vinegar on its own to dissolve gold.
• Hydrogen peroxide needs to be a higher concentration to dissolve gold.

Vinegar does dissolve lead. The higher the concentration the faster it dissolves lead. HCl dissolves tin. So the combination of vinegar and salt will dissolve lead and tin aka solder.

If you want to dissolve gold with vinegar you have to look up the recipe from the Univesity of Winnepeg or Saskatchewan. Some students discovered a way to dissolve gold with house hold vinegar and some other house hold chemicals. The solution has 3 or 4 parts to it, vinegar is the main part. An oxidizer, an acid, and something else make up the rest of the solution...

I know that HCl and sodium nitrate salt dissolves gold. I know sodium nitrate is an oxidizer. So vinegar and salt = HCl, add a little sodium nitrate and it becomes a weak aqua regia. I still need to test this myself.

I do know that bleach and vinegar dissolves gold plating. Just add the vinegar teaspoon at a time because it release chlorine gases. So don't inhale the noxiuos gases. And it should be done outdoors with the wind blowing away from you.

[guytelfer]

Build's pressure if you leave hydrogen peroxide pressurized, it bubbled over

[edwardpettus]

Dude try this method 1 cup vinegar 1 cup hydrogen peroxide an two tablespoons of muriatic acid an it only will take 4 to 5 hours to pull the gold

[adambuysyuckyhouses]

The white stuff at the bottom is silver chloride

[DUMPSTERDIVINGADELAIDE]

G'day mate, how are you, Thanks for for the video, 😊

[arlarl]

Pouring more 3% peroxide won’t increase the percentage of peroxide because it’s still 3% peroxide. It may increase the overall amount of peroxide in the mix but it’s dilute. You can buy 11% peroxide at any growers supplies/hydroponics store.

[AlfredNorman-cqqn]

Ok so don't start adding chemistry that will be fatal or injurious. There was kid here in the USA that made his own reactor in his garage and flooded the Nabourhood in radiation in the late 80s early 90s.
Be safe! Don't wanna read about ya in the paper Buddy😅