How to reduce tin?

[ldanielrosa]

TL;DR

I want to use a waste stream from another process to do things with tin

While reclaiming silver from scrap, I see that I will have plenty of copper nitrate as a waste stream. I've found some material on reclaiming this at . I see that this will convert it to copper sulfate as an intermediate step. I would like to divert some of this to dissolve tin from scrap pewter.

Once I have tin in solution, I would like to reduce it as fairly fine particles. Will ascorbic acid do the job on tin that it does on copper and silver? I would like to use a process similar to . I'm concerned that simple displacement with iron or aluminum will make particles that are too coarse and irregular. If ascorbic acid will not reduce tin, is there a relatively cheap and low toxicity agent that will?

 

[Mayhem]

Tin(ii) is harder to reduce than Cu(ii) and Ag(i).

Oxalic acid / oxalates may be a suitable alternative to ascorbic acid. While a weaker reducing agent in terms of standard potential (if memory serve), the release of CO₂
may drive the reaction by displacing any equilibrium, especially if heated.

 

[Borek]

Oxalates have very low solubility, so even if the tin gets reduced there is a risk it will be contaminated with other solids.

Judging from standard potentials its activity is higher than Zn and comparable with Al, that makes the reduction (especially in water, especially to fine dust) highly challenging.