Conducting Experiments With Silver Nitrate

By Author: Jo Alelsto
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Your chemistry laboratory will not be as interesting without silver nitrate which happens to be one of the most important chemicals in the industry. It is used as a cauterizing agent for wartz and is also found in medical facilities as a disinfectant. Have you ever asked yourself how this chemical is obtained? It is not like it just popped out of nowhere. Well, there is one simple experiment that shows the simplest way to obtain the chemical.

What happens when you mix nitric acid and silver?

All right, this experiment shows how AgNO3 is obtained. Before you even start with this experiment, make sure you are at a well equipped laboratory. This experiment shall never be performed in your home. It can only be carried out in a fuming hood or outdoors. Wear your masks, gloves, and laboratory suits.

The nitric acid used for this project is a concentrated acid and must, therefore, be handled with extreme caution. You would need a beaker, some silver foil, and concentrated nitric acid. Under room temperature the reaction may proceed slowly, but you can speed up the process by heating the mixture. You ...
... will see the acid eating up the silver foil. Add more silver foil until no more silver dissolves. While the reaction proceeds, a reddish-brown gas evolves from the beaker. This is the toxic nitrogen dioxide. This is the very reason why you should carry out this experiment outside or in a fuming hood. The resulting product is crude nitrate of silver that will crystallize as the mixture cools.

How to make mirrors?

The resulting salt of silver from the previous experiment is used in making mirrors. All right, we will not elaborate the experiment in detail, but at least you should be able to grasp the idea. First, you prepare aqueous solutions of sodium hydroxide and nitrate salt of silver in separate vials. Mix them in a bigger container, say a beaker. Stir the mixture and then you'll notice that a grayish precipitate forms. This is silver oxide, which dissolves in sufficient amount of ammonia will form a clear solution. Continue stirring while adding ammonia, after which will you need to add some sugar to the mixture. This mixture is ready and all you need to do is get a glass slide and cover its one side with an adhesive tape. Put this slide into the mixture. After letting it stand for a while, the mixture will turn silvery. The exposed side of the glass slide you submerged becomes coated with the silvery material which is highly reflective. Of course, this is a crude experiment. Manufacture of mirrors requires more stringent methods and more sophisticated equipment.

How to obtain silver back from its nitrate salt?

Some metals may react with an aqueous solution of the silver salt. One example is copper, which can be immersed into the solution. Copper reduces silver ions in the solution into silver atoms which collect on the metal surface. The solution then turns bluish as copper ions replace the silver ions in the mixture.

Silver nitrate suppliers may provide you with other chemicals you need. Make sure you know how to carry out experiments. Safety should be your priority.
Jo is a content writer for 'Silver Nitrate' (http://www.silver-nitrate.co.uk), a site owned by ReAgent Chemical Services Ltd, a well-known UK based chemical producer that makes, carries and distributes a vast variety of premium chemical. If your firm is seeking premium chemical product for example Silver Nitrate or AgNO3 then have a look at ReAgent Chemical Services Ltd.