Copyright © 2011 W.G.Peters
This is another way to make CG for home use. It is based on the reduction of gold chloride by a reducing agent. This formula is for 250ml of 50ppm CG. Of course, it can be scaled to make other amounts. Maltodextrin, a common food ingredient, is used to reduce the gold to nanoparticles, and also acts as a stabilizer. Sodium carbonate is used to raise the pH high enough to activate the maltodextrin.
Stirring is important in minimizing the amount of large particles and making the particle size more uniform. However, this formula seems to produce fairly good CG with less stirring required than other methods.
You need:
- Gold Chloride 1% solution (10mg gold per milliliter)1
- Maltodextrin powder (Sold in health food stores as Carbo-Gain, a body building supplement).
- Sodium Carbonate Solution, 1M strength2 (Commonly known as washing soda — NOT baking soda)
- Beaker or flask or pyrex measuring cup. (Do not use metal, only glass)
- Stirring rod or plastic spoon
- Distilled water (Not spring water, or filtered water)
Method:
- Weigh out 130 to 150 milligrams of maltodextrin powder.
- Mix 1M Sodium Carbonate solution if you don’t have it already.
- Put 250 ml of distilled water in the flask
- Add 140mg maltodextrin to the water
- Add 1.25 ml of 1% gold chloride solution to the water (or the amount which supplies 12.5 milligrams GOLD content!)
- Heat to boiling (Can use microwave oven)
- Slowly add 8 drops of 1M sodium carbonate solution, while stirring.
- Reheat to boiling again.
- Allow to stand until color change to ruby red is complete.
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1) Gold chloride from Salt Lake Metals contains 10mg pure gold per milliliter. 1% gold chloride from other vendors may have less gold, as they may include the weight of the chloride content.
2) To make 1M sodium carbonate, dissolve 3.7 grams of sodium carbonate in enough distilled water to make 30ml.