Introduction
So a fellow alchemist led me to this article.
In which a pathway to dissolving Gold is explained that does not involve the use of Aqua Regia. But just electrolysis in a sea salt solution. After doing a lot of research I was both fascinated but also had an issue with the use of Sea Salt. Since my intent of breaking open the metal gold was to obtain a pure Gold Salt. The experiment in the article would have yielded Sodium Tetrachloroaurata NaAuCl4. Which is Gold associated with the Metal Sodium.
About a week of pondering this experiment I at some point had the irresistible thought pop up in my mind, whether I could substitute sodium chloride with ammonium chloride for the electrolyte Solution. Then finally last night I decided to test out my thought. I only have a single 24K Gold Bar which I had long ago acquired for the day when I would be able to produce the Oil of Gold. I kept it aside since I was not yet ready to produce Nitric & Sulfuric Acid via dry distillation myself, but never would I have thought I would be dissolving Gold with electricity in such an elegant & gentle manner as I discovered last night.
The Experiment - 4 rounds of Testing
So I took my Lab-Bench Power Supply & hooked up my Gold Bar to the Anode & Used a Silver Coin as the Cathode. I mixed a solution of distilled water with Ammonium Chloride in which I suspended both. Once setup, I powered on the Power Supply and at 2v Current, with great excitement witnessed how a stream of vibrant green-yellow was pouring off of the Gold Bar into the Solution. Just as the article mentioned the sweet-spot is 2-3V. Higher and I would get bubbling at the anode & the stream would stop.
The First round I did, at some point it was no longer dissolving in that green-yellow stream but instead a cloudy precipitate was coming off of the Gold. I at first thought this might be Gold Nanoparticles, I let it run until I had a very opaque solution. Then I turned the experiment off & poured the solution through a paper filter. I kept the solution aside & left the Paper filter with the precipitate to dry.
I repeated a second round, getting the same result, around 30minutes into the Electrolysis again it changed from dissolving into the solution in its vibrant color, to suddenly turning opaque. At this point I initially thought perhaps there is a limit how much Gold chloride can be formed through this method before it would just release Gold Nanoparticles, but this turned out to be wrong.
I did some more research & realized that the precipitate forming was probably not Gold Nanoparticles but actually Gold Hydroxide, thank God Gold is uniquely as it is, resistant to all Acids except Aqua Regia. I poured some 18% HCl on the precipitate that was in the Filter from my first round & it reacted instantly dripping out in the same clear transparent but vivid green-yellow colour as was produced in the beginning of the electrolysis.
Now I was starting to get fired up. I setup a third round this time I changed my electrolyte solution to 200ml of Ammonium Chloride dissolved in distilled water & 200ml of 18%Hcl, my thought was that once the hydroxide would begin forming the HCl would help react with it & allow it to turn into Gold Chloride. This time I got a whole beaker of transparent beautiful clear green-yellow Gold Chloride Solution. I stopped when I began to see the Cathode accumulating a lot of black gold nanoparticles, this happened around the time the entire beaker was tinted
Then I did a fourth round, this time I figured that perhaps I could use only HCl, no salts, since apparently it would be feasible to use it as an electrolyte all on its own & in Alchemical Terms it would produce the cleanest & best form of Gold Chloride to be used to catalyze the Oil of Gold in future experiments. So I proceeded to fill the entire beaker with 400ml of 18% HCl & powered up the setup. It absolutely worked, a beautiful stream of Gold Chloride dissolving into the Solution.
Also an interesting thing is that using only HCl I have so far gotten a lot less Gold Nanoparticles forming at the Cathode. That round is still running strong as I am writing this, so I will have to observe if at some point it will start forming a crust on the Cathode, yet from all the runs I did this one has been going the longest without any serious build up on the cathode. Finally I would like to give my thanks to Rhoend whom I mentioned earlier, without whom I would probably not have stumbled on the article that inspired all of this experimenting.
So to clarify a few things I noticed: Using Ammonium Chloride as electrolyte will Yield NH4AuCl4 + at some point in the electrolysis this will shift to producing Insoluble Gold Hydroxide Au(OH)3. Using Ammonium Chloride + HCl as electrolyte will probably produce Ammonium Tetrachloroaurate NH4AuCl4 + Simple Gold Chloride AuCl4. Using only HCl only AuCl4 is most likely formed.
So I leave you all with a heart filled with gratitude & awe, hoping this article might stir the same in you fellow reader.
Yours Truly, Shahanshah Artin
