Production Techniques and Chemistry > Colloidal Gold Production

1000mL Purple Failures

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returnToEden:
After the initial success with the Electrolysis III method for 250mL, I tried to scale to 1000mL by quadrupling the table salt from 120mg to 480mg, and maltodextrin from 400mg to 1600mg, for 2 hours @ ~340mA. My first attempt started to turn purple 30 mins in, so that got aborted. I noticed golden droplets on the steel lid that I kept on the beaker (red flag?).

My second attempt was both a catastrophe(it was unattended for an hour and half) and a revelation of the issue. The steel lid I used was rusted, which I would guess contaminated the solution with rust droplets and ruined the process. So for my third attempt I will 3D print a fixture based on PETG (hopefully it'll stand up to 100C heat) and try again with a different cathode (assuming that this galvanized nail may have been ruined by the rusting above). Before this second attempt, I sterilized the gold wire with a butane torch, and now the wire is much softer though it holds its shape. Would this be an issue?

SaltyCornflakes:
That lid looks odd. Are you sure there was no current going through there? The lid should only receive steam = distilled water.
Yes, looking at it, it appears to be directly connected to a screwed-in electrode. That's no good. It needs to be isolated. By having it act as an electrode, you evidently get a lot of bad reaction happening which spoils your product. I use a watch glass dish for that reason. A porcelain plate works too.

The DW could also be impure, but consider the other issue first.

returnToEden:
Ok, I'll try again without a metal cover and report the results. It's not clearly shown in the picture, but the electrodes are isolated through plastic sleeve washers. I had wanted something to make the holes to secure the electrodes over the beaker.

I used Kroger's distilled water.

returnToEden:
Late update: I've returned to making 250mL batches successfully using a 3D printed fixture that allows me to adjust the distance between the electrodes. So the metal lid I was using must be the cause of the 1000mL production going bad, but I'll have to give it another go with the fixture instead of the metal lid to verify. For now, I'm wondering why my colloidal gold still tastes a little funny, there's a sort of tanginess to it but I have no idea how to describe the taste. I'd let it sit for an hour to let the chlorine gas go away but the taste remains. Perhaps I should try different distilled water.

cfnisbet:
Possibly just your tastebuds detecting a residue of chlorine?

Try a different make of distilled water if you can, but make a slightly less concentrated version to begin with; that will avoid wasting too much gold.

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