[sdiy] Cupric Chloride etchant?

[Eric Brombaugh]

CuCl handling advice from the gEDA list:

----------------------------
I like to keep etchant around -- I use CuCl2 + 2HCl --> H2CuCl4 etchant 
replenished by H2O2 and HCl as needed.
You can make a quick board for a small number of parts and wires for a 
power handling equipment chore
with a sharpie pen.  I do my 10/10, (with some 8/8 footprints and local 
zones), one layer designs myself first,
then send out.  That kind of etchant is mild on your clothes and skin 
compared to ferric chloride.  The HCl to use
is 35%  (swimming pool stores), the H2O2 is 35 % (hydroponics supply 
store).  It's slower, but possible to just use air and a fish
tank bubbler to activate the solution instead of H2O2.  Add HCl to get 
emerald green -- yellow green is too much -- on the edge of
releasing chlorine gas.  Add H2O2 to lighten spent solution.  If H2O2 is 
not enough to lighten, add HCl also.  The solution volume
grows with use.

Anytime you want to stop and avoid pollution, you just add OH-  (lye) to 
get a pH of 9 and all the metal precipitates
to oxide that you can sell and clean water.
----------------------------

Looks pretty simple. Fairly benign waste products too.

Eric

On 01/16/2010 02:45 PM, cheater cheater wrote:
> How do you dispose of this stuff?
>
> Is there a way to chemically neutralize it so that it can go down the drain?
> There are some links on the 'net about reducing cupric chloride, but i
> have no idea if that's feasible at home, or if it does much good to
> the disposability of the thing.
>
> D.
>
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2010 at 21:39, HL-SDK Synths<syntroniks at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Only thing I have to worry about is disposal, If it isn't etching fast
>> enough for me, I add more peroxide and/or acid. That speeds it up
>> considerably, but I am slowly working my way up in liquid volume. The same
>> bottle of acid and peroxide have lasted me a few boards I suppose. I prefer
>> it to the ugly ferric chloride.
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 12:34 PM, David G. Dixon<dixon at interchange.ubc.ca>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi guys, has anyone used Cupric Chloride for etching their PCBs?
>>>>
>>>> Relevant link:
>>>> http://www.diyblog.net/2009/11/21/cupric-chloride-as-a-pcb-
>>>> etchant/
>>>
>>> I've done all my boards this way.  It's brilliant.  I keep a bottle of
>>> green
>>> solution in my garage, and when I'm ready to etch, I bring it in the
>>> house,
>>> pour some into a pyrex dish, and do it in the laundry-room wash-basin.
>>> About every third or fourth time I add a few splashes of hydrochloric
>>> (muriatic) acid, and each time I add a splash of peroxide.  Even when the
>>> solution is stone cold, etching is still complete in about 3-5 minutes.  I
>>> just wear a rubber glove and swish the board around with my hand.
>>>
>>> I'm still using the same solution I started with almost a year ago.
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> Synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
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>>
>>
>
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