Gold Chloride

[collodion.pl]

Hi! My name is Michał, and I’m trying to get into Dags. Everything is almost clear, but when I want to buy gold chloride I’ve been asked which one? This:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold(III)_chloride

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold(I)_chloride

second:

Can I use for this solution demineralized water from gas station?

third 🙂

What is good price for 1g of gold chloride?

Regards

Michał

[jgmotamedi]

You want to use gold (III) chloride. However this isn’t readily available so most of us use Chloroauric acid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloroauric_acid

I haven’t purchased in a while, but Artcraft has it for $45 a gram.

[jgmotamedi]

I am going to back track a little bit. I have been obsessing recently about gilding, and rereading the old manuals it appears that chloroauric acid is what was used and recommended in the 19th century, not gold (III) chloride. Most of the manuals provide instructions on making your own gold chloride, and the instructions all suggest using aqua regia, which would produce chloroauric acid. Any disagreement? I know there are a few folks who are currently buffering their chloroauric acid with sodium carbonate or sodium metaborate to produce a more neutral solution, in line with the pH of gold (III) chloride.

As an aside, why do we age our gilding solution? None of the old manuals say anything about aging it, although one mentions that it should become “limpid.”

Such are the dangers of reading…

[collodion.pl]

Thank you, I hope this will work 🙂 http://www.mamut-photo.com/eshop/en/chemicals/88-gold-chloride-1g.html

[jgmotamedi]

I guess so, it isn’t very clear exactly what the chemical is, but I think chloroauric acid is pretty much the only gold chloride currently being used in photography. If you dilute it with distilled water to 500ml you should be set with the standard .2% solution.

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