Beth, I hope you don't mind if I respond to some of your questions. I have included both your posts below. Apparently most of the more knowledgeable people are not online right now but I will take advantage of that to provide my limited experience. Relative to the post on hot water the following link may be helpful: http://silver-lightning.com/theory.html. Of the people listed at the top of the linked page I know that at least three of them are normally regular contributors to this list. Frankly, I was shocked to not receive comments from any of them regarding the previous response I had supplied you given the controversial issues addressed. They must be really busy elsewhere. Unless I note otherwise, the quotes I provide in the following are from that linked page. First, I assume that you are generating CS by the low voltage DC (LVDC) method. You want to make the best CS (actually EIS) so: "The best EIS is made by using a constant current source where the current is equal to 1 mA per square inch of anode material. For 14 gauge wire about 1 foot 4 inches of length is 1 square inch. Secondly it is best to limit the concentration of the colloid at any point, so it is best to stir it as well. Although the stirring can be gentle, the closer the electrodes are to each other, the more vigorous it should be." Heat increases the conductivity of the water. As long as the current flowing through the anode does not exceed a current equal to 1 mA per square inch of anode material, the extra conductivity caused by the hot temperature does no harm. When starting EIS generation with just distilled water, the extra conductivity will help reduce overall EIS generation time. However a better way to reduce generation time is to increase the conductivity of the water by adding some EIS from a previous batch. I believe that most people here on this forum do that as the method to reduce EIS generation time. Another good way to reduce generation time without sacrificing quality is to increase the size of your silver electrodes. I do that along with adding some starter EIS. You say that you are confused about making SMALL particle colloidal silver. If you are using LVDS, you are making EIS and not colloidal silver: "EIS - Electrolytically isolated silver. This is what most people call colloidal silver, but is a combination of both colloidal and ionic silver. CS- Colloidal silver. A colloid is a mixture of solid particles and a liquid. The particles are so small and support a charge, called the zeta potential, that they can stay suspended as a colloid indefinitely. With colloidal silver the particles of silver range from 2 atoms (.2 nm) to thousands of particles (100 or so nm) in size. Ionic Silver - Silver compounds that dissociate when in water to form an Ag+ or Ag2+ cation and an anion. For EIS this will be a mixture of silver hydroxide [Ag2(OH)2] and silver oxide [Ag2O] and usually small amount of silver carbonate." and: "EIS is a combination of ionic silver and colloidal silver. It is typically about 90% ionic and 10% colloidal by weight, but can vary between 5% and 20% colloidal depending on how it is made." So regardless of how you make your EIS, 80 to 95% of your EIS will consist of silver ions that are silver atoms missing one electron. Which, of course is the smallest silver particle you can have. That doesn't mean that the 5% to 20% colloidal silver size isn't important. If you read the linked article you will see that the colloidal portion of the EIS is also valuable. There are two conditions that primarily contribute to larger silver particles: ** Using a generating current that is greater than 1 mA per square inch of anode material. Or, ** Generating an EIS solution that is greater than 20 ppm.
When trying to generate high ppm EIS solutions, you can get silver particles and silver ions combining in the solution to form larger silver particles. This can cause yellowing of the EIS and is undesirable but not dangerous. Relative to your first post below on the testing of EIS, I don't know about outside testing labs since I make it primarily for myself but I know that others here have and may be able to help. But I do have some comments. To make outside testing useful, you need first to have developed a repeatable EIS generation process. Have you done that? You need to be able to make batch after batch with each batch closely approximating the others. Get that down first. There are measurement methods that you can do that will give you an approximation of the ppm in your EIS. One method, as you note in your posting, is the use of a TDS meter such as the Hanna meter to measure and approximate the ionic silver portion of your EIS. The reason I say approximate is because the TDS meter cannot directly measure the silver content of the EIS. Most first make a TDS measurement of the distilled water use for the EIS. Then they make a TDS measurement of the EIS. Subtracting the first TDS measurement from the second TDS measurement and multiplying the result by 2 will give you an approximate value of the EIS ppm. The TDS meter only measures the ionic component if the EIS and not the particulate portion so you will need to take in to consideration what percentage of your EIS is ionic vs particulate and that will depend on your particular brewing process. Another method to estimate silver ppm is use of a Faraday's Equation Calculator available at: http://www.silvermedicine.org/faradaycalculator.html You can get a relatively accurate calculation of an EIS solutions ppm by measuring the EIS anode current vs time during the generation of the EIS and then plugging that info into the Faraday's Equation Calculator. Some questions others on the silverlist might be able to answer: ** What is an acceptable measurement accuracy? +/- 10 percent?? ** They say you cannot adjust the ppm of an EIS solution by adding distilled water to dilute it. Can you blend two different EIS solutions to create a specific ppm? ** After generating EIS, is there a minimum/maximum period that you should wait to let the solution stabilize before a final measurement with a TDS meter? I hope this helps a little. - Steve N ________________________________ From: Bethany Methven [mailto:mrs_ak_h...@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 5:26 PM To: silver-list@eskimo.com Subject: CS>Hot water for making colloidal silver I am confused about the best temperature for making SMALL particle colloidal silver. Some websites say to use very hot water, some sites say to use room temperature water. Different websites claim small particles for using hot or cold water. Which is true? and how do I know for sure? If I have a DC silver generator, do I need to use hot water? Am I making the particles large by heating my water. I still have absolutely clear CS when I do heat my water almost to the boiling point. ________________________________ From: Bethany Methven [mailto:mrs_ak_h...@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 10:20 AM To: silver-list@eskimo.com Subject: CS>CS testing Hi, just wondering if anyone out there gets there CS tested frequently, and where they test it. I am looking for a cheaper place. So far, the cheapest place chargest around $150. for complete testing. I have been selling it for almost 6 months, but feel that I should know exactly what ppm, amount of ions vs. particles and perhaps particle size, too. Do you think it would be sufficient to buy a hanna meter or something like that and just figure out what percentage of ions I have? Because I'm selling it, should I get as much info as possible about it? Are there any regulations that I haven't heard about that require it to be tested if I'm selling it? Thanks - Beth -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
