Silver Friends, As some of you may know I work with ceramic water filters that are saturated with CS. Now I want to gain capacity to saturate with AgNO3, and I'm hoping that some of those who are chemistry minded may be able to guide me. Specifically I want to better understand how to burn off the nitrate. Following I explain a problem I have, and I'd be grateful for a response on this.
What I have done in the past is to saturate the fired purifiers with the silver nitrate, then place these in a kiln and fire to the first visible red. I've done this in darkness so as to better judge this, the temperature around 475C. Then I reach into the kiln with tongs, place the purifiers in a bucket and cover with sawdust and a lid. The sawdust begins burning and the combustion, seeking oxygen, pulls some of this out of the purifier as NO3. Thus metalic metal remains, probably bonded to the ceramic. (Extraneous nitrates that may remain are flushed out with the first water put through the purifiers.) The problem is that the heavy oxidation implicit forces a lot of carbon into the pores, these having been vacated by the oxygen, so the purifiers turn black. My fear is that prospective purifier users will be put off by the blackness. So here are my *QUESTIONS:* Do I even need the the oxidation in the first place? If so, can I minimize the oxidation, in such a way as to pull out the nitrate, without forcing in the carbon? (Feel free to speculate.) At what temperature will I have gone too high, burning off the silver? I am looking for simple answers that will allay the need to determine these points with a lot of testing. Thanks! Reid http://www.purifier.com.np -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
