Fred Walter wrote:
>
> Here are some colloidal silver FAQs. I picked this up from
> http://y2k.entrewave.com
> IS "GOLDEN" COLLOIDAL SILVER BETTER?
>
> There is no such thing as "golden" colloidal silver. Silver is white.
> Lange's Handbook of Chemistry lists silver as "...the whitest of metals.
> Pure silver particles suspended in water should have a very slight
> white- colored fog to it.
Please refer to the following excerpt form the document by Peter
Lindemann:
"The Yellow Color"
There has been a fair amount of controversy in the public literature
concerning the appearance of the "yellow"color. A lot of well meaning
people have told me that "yellow is bad", "silver isn't yellow", "yellow
is sulfur contamination", "yellow is iron contamination", and lots of
other things. I finally found what I believe to be the answer to this
question in a book titled Practical Colloid Chemistry, published in
London in 1926. In the section on the "Colours of Colloidal Metals",
sub-section on the "Polychromism of silver solutions" on page 69, I
found the
following statements: "The continuous change in colour from yellow to
blue corresponds to a change in the absorption maximum of the shorter to
longer wave-lengths with a decreasing degree of dispersion. This is a
general
phenomenon in colloid chemistry illustrating the relation between colour
and degree of dispersion." This section goes on to describe the colors
that show up in a wide variety of colloidal metal solutions.
Interestingly, they ALL have a yellow phase. For true
"electro-colloidal" silver, the particle size range that can appear
yellow is .01 to .001 microns (10 to 100 angstroms) because that is the
size of silver particle that best absorbs the indigo light,leaving only
its inverse color, yellow, to be observed. The final transparent-yellow
appearance only shows up after the particles have become evenly
dispersed.
If you make colloidal silver with a very low
> current, it will take a long time... long enough for silver compounds
> to be formed due to electrolysis.
If there's nothing but H2O to begin with, there will be no compounds to
be formed. If there's NaCl (salt), AgCl will be formed immidiately as a
whiteish precipitate, since it is insoluble in water.
Don't just take my word for it- try this experiment to see!
Mix a pinch of salt in a clear glass container of water, insert your
silver generating probes, and watch the ANODE (the one with the Positive
voltage supply) carefully as you turn on the power... A cloud of white
particles starts to form Immediately, and if undisturbed, begin to
settle rapidly towards the bottom. This white compound is insoluable
AgCl, Silver Chloride. Until all of the CL- ions have been removed from
the water by combining with the Ag+ ions being generated at the anode,
you won't be producing any colloidal silver - the silver "grabs" or
combines with the CL- ions first, very quickly!
Now do the same thing with a pinch of baking soda, and watch the
insoluable silver carbonate forming as white particles right next to the
surface of the anode...
When AG+ ions (Colloidal Silver ions) bond to negatively charged ions,
they LOOSE THEIR CHARGE.
>Even distilled water contains trace elements
PURE distilled water is nothing but recondensed wator vapor if it has
been produced properly, and unless contaminated in the production
process, does not contain trace elements. If it does, it's not
'distilled water'.
and Merck's Handbook describes many silver compounds as "pale
> yellow." They include silver bromide, silver carbonate, silver chlorite,
> silver hyponitrate, silver iodide, silver nitrite, silver phosphate and
> silver picrate. Some of these compounds are described as toxic. The
> proper way to make colloidal silver is to use enough current to cause
> tiny silver particles (each 12 to 15 atoms) to be "knocked" off of the
> electrodes, making the desired concentration in 5 to 7 minutes. This is
> a MECHANICAL process.
As little as 2 volts in a conductive solution will allow silver atoms to
leave the anode as positively charged silver ions, which will form a
colloidal suspension in pure distilled water. At 2 volts, however, the
process would be extremely slow starting with pure distilled water, as
the conductivity is very low. To overcome the low conductivity and get
more current to flow through the process, a combination of 3 things can
be done:
1: increase the voltage; this has been followed beyond the necessary
level by some.
2: move the electrodes closer together; with all else being equal,
electrodes being moved in to half the distance see half the resistance -
the conductivity is effectively doubled.
I run 1/2" between the electrodes, and keep them parallel.
>You want to do it quickly enough so that chemical compounds do not have time
>to form.
If there are other ions in the water for the silver to react with, those
reactions will occur FIRST; later, you'll make some Colloidal Silver,
too....
> If the process takes 20 to 45
> minutes, the chemical process overshadows the mechanical effect, and you
> get silver compounds. WHAT compounds depend on the content of the
> original water. Some silver compounds are quite toxic. Merck's lists
> silver nitrate as highly poisonous.
>
> ISN'T "SEA SALT" BETTER THAN PLAIN SALT?
>
> NEVER use "Sea Salt" when making colloidal silver! In order to conduct
> electricity, a TINY amount of salt must be added to distilled water.
> Without it, you cannot get enough current to flow.
The above statement is simply not true; it speaks of the "RIGHT NOW
ATTACK" mentality - "I didn't see anything right away...".
To disprove this for yourself, if you have a Digital Test Meter, set it
to read on the 2 mA (2 milli-amps, of .002 Amps) scale, plug the meter's
red test lead into the Amps jack, and clip your positive silver
generator supply lead to the tip of that red test lead. Use another
aligator clip to attach the tip of the black 'Common' test lead to your
silver anode (the one the positive supply normally clips to.). Clip your
Negative supply lead to the remaining electrode; in operation, it's
referred to as the 'cathode', as it contributes ELECTRONS only to this
process. (Positirly charged Silver ions can only be generated at the
positively charged ANODE.)
When you start with pure distilled water, almost boiling hot, and have
your silver electrodes 1/2" apart, and you turn on the power, you will
read that there's a current flowing through the pure distilled water.
(If you read zero, someting's not hooked up quite right yet; recheck
your meter setting & the jacks being used)
With 3-1/4" of the electrodes immersed in an 8 oz. generator system, I
read about .370mA current flowing through with only 12 volts applied.
With 15 volts applied, the current increases accordingly. This tells
you, "Electrons are leaving the cathode - therefore, positively charged
silver ions are simultaneously leaving the anode."
> This salt must be
> very pure, or you risk adding more impurities which will combine with
> the silver to make still more chemical compounds. You want plain, pure
> salt. Sea salt is the residue from evaporated ocean water. The ocean
> contains not only sodium chloride, but EVERY MINERAL KNOWN TO EXIST ON
> THE PLANET! It may make a good trace-mineral supplement, but DO NOT use
> it in making colloidal silver. I looked at the salt available at the
> grocery store and found that "Canning and Pickling Salt" found in the
> canning supply section is generally pure salt. The brand I use is
> marked "99.95% sodium chloride." That's about as pure as it gets .
I don't think you want to put in ANY salt at all, and you don't have
to... you can still speed up the process significantly by simply adding
th only thing you want in there when you're done - Colloidal Silver
from a previous batch made with pure distilled water!
If you use the last 1/4 of your last batch as a "STARTER" for your new
batch, you will increase the conductivity about 6 fold. In a 15 volt
generator setup, initial current is then about 2mA, and production of
fine gas bubbles at both anode & cathode is soon apparent. I use the DVM
in line whenever I'm producing Colloidal Silver, and watch the current
climb as the conductivity increases and the concentration of colloidal
silver builds. AT 15 volts, I stop each batch when the current gets to
8mA. The resulting product is a very transparent deep golden yellow. (If
salt or soda had been in it, it would look more silvery-whitish - been
there, done that, too...)
>
> IS THE PARTICLE SIZE IMPORTANT?
>
> Not really. Both the high-voltage and low-voltage methods of making
> colloidal silver produce particles in the 12 to 15 atom range, far
> smaller than a red blood cell. Even if larger particles are present,
> these will not make it into the bloodstream and "clog up the blood
> vessels" as some "experts" claim.
>From past experience in Electro-plating silver, I'd like to pass on to
you something that every silver electro-plater learns fast; in a highly
conductive plating bath, if you apply too much voltage, the silver that
plates out on your work piece (hooked to the Cathode or negative supply
lead) will be very coarse and granular, rather than smooth and bright as
desired. In that application, 4 volts is too much - an applied voltage
of noly 2.2 to 2.5 volts produces a smooth finish...
If too large of silver particles were going to be generated, I would
have to guess that it would more likely happen at a Higher voltage,
rather than at a lower supply voltage.
How long does it take? With the 1/4 starter as detailed above, I'm
making deep golden yellow, transparent colloidal silver, in about 180
degree water, in about 35 minutes. Every batch is ended at the same
current cutoff / PPM concentration; results from the lab will be
available later this week to relate the actual current readings in the
process to the PPM of colloidal silver in the final product.
If I've stepped on some toes in the process of "Telling it like I see
it", I only intended to shed some light where it may be needed.
For further info and photos of my system set up as described above, you
can visit my "Making Colloidal Silver" page on my website. Yes, I do
sell stuff, too, but I also tend to try to give accurate information
there, rather than marketing hype.
If you wish to visit, the address is:
http://web.idirect.com/~showcase/althealth/makecs.htm
New photos of the step - by - step process will be edited into this page
soon, and more technical details as well. The Lab results as to PPM
should be posted by the end of the week, so check back then.
"Results are results"- we'll let the numbers speak for themselves!
Bruce K. Stenulson
Applied Technology
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