My setup and first batch of colloidal gold.

[rumblefrost]

My first batch. Created by following exactly the method posted by Kephra in the articles section.


Edited by Kephra to fix photo links

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[rumblefrost]

Thanks for help with the edit.

[Kephra]

No problem...

[Liam]

rumblefrost,

Yep, you got colloidal gold.  Congrats!
How long did you run it, and which one of the articles were you doing? 

[rumblefrost]

I used the article how to make Colloidal gold with gold wire. I ran it for 37 minutes at which point I no longer noticed a color change and noticed a decrease in the current. I varied from the method in three ways so when I said "exactly"" above I might have been dishonest .The  three things I need to look into and possibly change are:

1) I used iodized table salt and I'm not sure if the added chemicals in it make a difference .
2) I used Lab grade sodium citrate and on the next batch I think I'll use food grade.
3) I used stranded copper wire wrapped around a glass rod for the negative electrode instead of stainless steel.

Overall I consider it a success for a preliminary trial run.

[Kephra]

I don't think any of those three things are significant.

The amount of iodide in salt is pathetically low (from the standpoint of health), and will be oxidized to free iodine in a few minutes.
Stranded or straight wire, no difference except when you try to clean it.
As for the sodium citrate, they were probably all made in the same plant at the same time.  Often, different grades are just subjected to different tests.  Its like semiconductors: the manufacture runs off a batch and tests them, then puts a different part number on them depending on how good they are.

The big thing with gold is the amount of salt.  It controls how much gold you are going to get.  With silver, each hydroxide will combine with a silver atom and make silver hydroxide.  With gold, it takes 3 chlorides to combine with the same gold atom to make one gold chloride.  However, there is no guarantee that three chlorides will find the same gold atom.  So a lot of the chloride is wasted, I think it bubbles off as gas.  After that, you are just electrolyzing water and the citrate.

Anyway, its the fact that gold has 3 valence electrons that make it more complicated.

[rumblefrost]

I raised the Salt level by 3ml and the Sodium Citrate by 6ml and am much happier with the color.


Edited by Kephra to fix image links:

It should look like:

Code: [Select]

[img]http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad117/rumbleguppy001/th_utf-8BSU1BRzAzMzIuanBn.jpg[/img]

[Kephra]

Yep, looks good!