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Sulfamic Acid: The Solid Acid Used in Gold Recovery and Industrial Descaling

Sulfamic Acid: The Solid Acid Used in Gold Recovery and Industrial Descaling

Sulfamic acid is a strong inorganic acid that's solid at room temperature, used in gold recovery to dissolve base metals and in industrial descaling applications.

Sulfamic acid (H₃NSO₃) is a strong inorganic acid that is solid at room temperature — white crystalline powder — making it significantly safer to handle and transport than liquid mineral acids. It dissolves readily in water to form a strongly acidic solution. In Gold Recovery from Laptop Hard Drives via Aqua Regia: Process and Economics workflows, sulfamic acid is used to dissolve base metal oxides and carbonates without attacking noble metals like gold and platinum. This makes it useful as a preparatory cleaning step before aqua regia treatment. It also neutralizes excess nitric acid in gold refining solutions (converting it to sulfuric acid and nitrous oxide), a step that improves the purity of subsequent gold precipitation. Industrial applications include descaling boilers, heat exchangers, and cooling systems (dissolves calcium carbonate and iron oxide deposits), and as a cleaning agent for metals before plating or soldering. It biodegrades relatively quickly compared to mineral acids, giving it an environmental advantage in some applications.

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April 13, 2026

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