Cleaning carbon rods
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Cleaning carbon rods
Does anyone know a quick way to clean copper deposits off carbon rods? I've been using sandpaper and it's messy and tedious.
- Lyn
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Re: Cleaning carbon rods
Try steel wool. Any way you clean them will be messy. If the copper deposit is extremely stuck on then perhaps remove it by scraping with a single edge blade or a Stanley knife and then use the steel wool.
Re: Cleaning carbon rods
There's an old thread right here that has a few suggestions!
http://www.chemtalk.com.au/viewtopic.ph ... ode#p43583
Nitric acid works, but will need to be done in a fume cupboard. Bigmack's method works for cleaning rusty electrodes, not sure about removal of copper.
This thread on Preproom is also positive about Nitric acid, but soaking in 1M rather than using conc.
http://community.preproom.org/index.php ... rodes.620/
http://www.chemtalk.com.au/viewtopic.ph ... ode#p43583
Nitric acid works, but will need to be done in a fume cupboard. Bigmack's method works for cleaning rusty electrodes, not sure about removal of copper.
This thread on Preproom is also positive about Nitric acid, but soaking in 1M rather than using conc.
http://community.preproom.org/index.php ... rodes.620/
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- Joined: 01 Aug 2017, 12:19
- Job Title: Laboratory technician
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- State/Location: NSW
Re: Cleaning carbon rods
Thank you both.
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Re: Cleaning carbon rods
easy to "unplate" them .
Before beaker of HCl 0.1M . old scrap of copper .
positive ( Red ) on the Carbon .Negative (Black) on the scrap of Copper. Few minutes Later ..... Warning , it does make a bit of Chlorine gas . So best off in the Fume hood ....still,... safer than Nitrogen Dioxide gas given off when using Nitric acid to "eat " the copper off. And as the Copper goes onto the scrap copper , you don't have Copper Nitrate to dispose of .
Before beaker of HCl 0.1M . old scrap of copper .
positive ( Red ) on the Carbon .Negative (Black) on the scrap of Copper. Few minutes Later ..... Warning , it does make a bit of Chlorine gas . So best off in the Fume hood ....still,... safer than Nitrogen Dioxide gas given off when using Nitric acid to "eat " the copper off. And as the Copper goes onto the scrap copper , you don't have Copper Nitrate to dispose of .
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- Posts: 217
- Joined: 01 Aug 2017, 12:19
- Job Title: Laboratory technician
- School: College
- State/Location: NSW
Re: Cleaning carbon rods
Ha! Brilliant, bigmack. I knew there had to be a way.