Hi everyone,
I've recently started trying to make colloidal gold by electrolysis. I'm new to this so please bear with me and point out any silly mistakes I'm making!
Unfortunately, every batch comes out consistently cloudy. Can anyone provide any insight into where I'm going wrong and how to get this right?
It appears clear until around 35 mins in, at which point it gets a slight yellow haze when the light hits it. If you leave it running for 90 minutes the cloudiness is very clear.
I will detail my exact setup and process below. Any help would be massively appreciated! It's so annoying that this is happening, I'm meticulous about weighing, cleanliness temperature etc. but it just won't produce a clear result.
Ingredients- 500ml distilled water
- Sodium chloride (lab-grade 99.9% pure from APCPure.com)
- Tri-sodium citrate (lab-grade 99% pure from APCPure.com)
- ⌀ 1mm 99.99% gold wire (cooksongold.com)
- ⌀ 2mm copper wire (cooksongold.com)
0.5M Stock Solution Preparation- 0.3g of NaCl dissolved in 100 ml of distilled water
- 1.47g tri-sodium citrate dissolved in 100ml of distilled water
Method- Hold 500ml of distilled water @ 90°C - This isn't fluctuating more than 1°C either way
- Stir @ 810 rpm - As fast as I can stir it without it spilling
- Insert gold anode and copper cathode - Both sunk 80mm into the beaker, approx. 40mm - 50mm apart
- Set DC power supply to 36V constant voltage - my amps read at 0.235
- Wait....
ObservationsAfter 12 mins the water turns very slightly pink, by 20 minutes its deep pink and after 30 mins it's a bright, sunset red. It appears to be crystal clear until 40 mins when a slight yellow haze appears at the top of the beaker. After 90 mins the liquid has turned deep ruby red but is cloudy and when light shines on the surface it looks yellow.