Help making stannous chloride??????

Question

I am making my first batch of stannous chloride. I need tin and hydrochloric acid. I have the acid but not sure what to use for the tin. Can I use a coke can or something better? Where can I get the tin? After I mix the two and have the solution can I put it into crystal form and store it safely? How do I do this? How do I get it into crystal form and how long will it last? Help??

Answer 1

As Fly On The Wall notes, your chemistry needs a lot of work, so I am a bit reluctant to give you information.

Lead free solder is often 96% tin and 4% silver.  The silver will not react with the acid.

Stannous chloride hydrolyzes in neutral solution.  You will need to add excess acid to keep it in solution.

Answer 2

If your knowledge of chemistry is such that you are considering using a soda can (primarily aluminum) as your source of tin, then you should stop trying to do any preparations on your own.  You're going to blow yourself up.  Don't use solder as the next answer suggests because it won't react the same as pure tin and anyway lead is real toxic.

Answer 3

If you use a Coke can you'll get aluminum chloride, assuming you can work your way down past the paint and inner plastic lining to some bare metal.  News flash:  "tin cans" are no longer made of tin.

Solder (often called lead solder, for electronics) is a mixture of tin and lead.  Suppose you dissolved some solder.  The tin would stay in solution and the lead would precipitate as PbCl2.  

But as the tin dissolved would probably be oxidized to Sn4+, not the stannous ion.

Or you could purchase SnCl2 from a chemical supplier.