RE: kitchen recipe for palladium

Chris, The ratio of salt to palladium is the critical part as the salt
allows the palladium to become an active part of the aqueous solution. The
more salt you add past that, will produce a slower solution of palladium.
The iodine is not present enough to matter. You can mix palladium chloride
at high concentrations so the amount of water will not show itself to be a
limiting factor unless you go to extremes. I have seen formulas that range
from 40 ml to 55ml with the same amounts of solids. You should consider the
strength of your ferric oxalate when mixing the palladium. If you look at
the reaction with ferric oxalate, light, platinum/palladium a .7 M solution
can be used. I prefer to balance the equation of available components.
Just as you can mix and match your cations ( sodium, ammonium, potassium,
lithium) you can mix and match the strength of those solutions if you are
not careful. The ratio of 5 g Palladium Chloride with 3.5 g of Sodium
Chloride is correct. You can check that by looking up the atomic weights and
matching the formula weight. You can do that for all the palladium
solutions.

The biggest unknown will be your ferric oxalate. You may be aware that back
in 1994, Mike Ware published a paper that spelled out in great detail the
formula weights and interaction I the world of platinum/palladium printing.
He used AFO, ammonium ferric oxalate because it is a well defined material.
That means that you make it and it has a specific formula and it has very
little unknown. Ferric oxalate on the other hand can have unknown in it;
thus making it harder to quantify in your formula and subsequent balanced
chemical reaction.

So observation must replace the scale in this part of the process. You can
use a scale to weigh a solid ( or a liquid but less common) measure you
volume with a pipette, buret, or graduated cylinder but you can only make or
use solution of a "ill defined" substance. That being said, you can use that
ill defined substance to make beautiful print with repeatable results by
controlling it the best you can.

Add your salt to the water, mix it and then add your palladium chloride. If
you chose to use a kitchen approach; at least use plastic spoons. I have not
measured weights for platinum/palladium printing in such a manner so I can't
tell you what a teaspoon of palladium chloride weighs. You should know that
some palladium powder will stay on your spoon. And if I were you, I'd mix
up some as ammonium palladium, some lithium, and some sodium, so that you
can use it to control the color of your print. It won't go bad just sitting
there kept dry in a tight bottle. You might just mix up 2.5 gram lots and
see what flavor floats your boat, and then keep the others around as slight
color adjusters.
        

Eric Neilsen Photography
4101 Commerce Street
Suite 9
Dallas, TX 75226
http://e.neilsen.home.att.net
http://ericneilsenphotography.com
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christina Z. Anderson [mailto:zphoto@bellsouth.net]
> Sent: Sunday, May 08, 2005 8:11 AM
> To: Alt list
> Subject: kitchen recipe for palladium
>
> I'm kidding, but not really.
> I have 25 g of palladium powder. What gram/ml recipe do you all have for
> this amount? I won't touch it until I hear from you, as $291 (gasp) is a
> lot to waste. I have:
>
> 5 g palladium
> 3.5 sodium chloride
> 55 ml water.
>
> If I am off in any of these, what happens? Is the sodium just regular
> table
> salt with or without iodine? What does it do to the mix?
> TIA,
> Chris
Received on Sun May 8 10:55:16 2005