Gold Plated Picks for the WIN!

[Dragunov-21]

To be honest I just assumed it was auric chloride as there was *some* sort of metal ions and to my knowledge sim cards don't contain any other metals.

The acid (30%w/v HCl) seemed to dissolve some of the metal, and the remaining gold on the cards separated from the SIM cards themselves and floated around (as you said).

Whatever ions were floating around coloured the solution a bright yellow, and when they were electroplated they looked like red gold

What do you think they actually were?

To be honest, as a grade 12 student my knowledge of anything more than generic chem concepts is pretty poor...

[Kaotik]

Not to experienced with how sim cards are made, but I would think they are plated themselves. Dipping them in an acid solution would not only seperate the gold but also parts of the metal they're plated on.

When gold plating in the field, the gold solution used is purple. Otherwise, try plating it with real gold placed in a mesh bag hanging over the plating tank with the appropriate lead connected.

[Dragunov-21]

Well if Au3+ ions are purple, then I've got no idea what my picks are now plated in lol...

[mercurial]

Well if Au3+ ions are purple, then I've got no idea what my picks are now plated in lol...

A solution of auric chloride in water is orange (might look yellow when dilute), this is not to say that gold plating solutions are orange - they can be purple.

There is no way you had any gold ions(Au3+ or Au+) in solution. It simply isn't possible. If the gold was going to react and dissolve in the acid, it would've gobbled up the little flakes of gold, wouldn't it?

Gold can sit in a beaker of hydrochloric acid for years, and it still won't react.

There is other metal inside the SIM card, given you said that you got a 'reddish gold' plate on your pick, I'd say that you've got a thin copper layer on it. Electroplated gold is VERY pure and will be gold in colour, a very very thin layer can actually be green - but not reddish.

There isn't any ppssibile way you could have got gold ions in solution, or plated onto your picks by the method you described, besides which, there just isn't enough gold on 100 SIM cards to do the job, even for a very thin layer of gold.

I won't go into further detail, this has gotten well away from talk about lockpicks! If you're interested in further details of the chemistry involved, so you can gold plate things, PM me.

...Mark

[Dragunov-21]

That is a shame... guess I'm back to copperplating then

Ah well...