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How to prepare the gold plating solution?

February 17, 2009

Dear all
I'm a PhD student and working on Gold Nanocatalysts. my problem is that I have to use the gold foil as gold precursor that I need to dissolve in Aqua regia. I am confused about this, that
1. How much proportion of HCl and HNO3 I have to take?
2. How to remove the acids from the gold-acids complex?
3. How to prepare the Gold solution in water aftr this for further process?
Hope I can have valuable suggestion from this forum

Regards

Saqib Khan
PhD student - Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia

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March 19, 2009

Dear Sadiq,
What you actually want to do ?

Gold can easily be dissolve in aqua regia (1 Part nitric and 3 Parts hydrochloric acid). The volume of acids you have to decide as per the mass of gold used. But be careful, since the aqua regia is highly corrosive.
In aqua regia gold becomes chloroauric acid.
Gold can be reduced to gold chloride but highly explosive compound, which is not recommended for general laboratory use.
But more details will be useful.
Good luck!

Shafiuddin A. Mohammed
metal coating shop - Dubai, United Arab Emirates

If you are going to plate out of a gold cyanide bath, I would strongly recommend that you buy the cyanide gold salt from a reputable company. They can provide you with operating instructions and make up instructions. Probably cheaper in the long run and a lot less dangerous.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
March 19, 2009