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Electro plating silver from silver nitrate

Hello..

I'm doing a science project and my partner and I chose electroplating. We want to plate something with silver. We have the silver nitrate, the wires and battery, but we don't know exactly how to do it. So if anyone has any info on how we make the solution and what the steps are. that would be of a great help.

Thanx,

Stephanie [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- San Jose, California, USA
2003

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First of two simultaneous responses -- 2003

That's not a good project, Stephanie. Electroplate pennies with zinc, or electroplate quarters or a brass key with copper per our FAQs.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

You can not practically electroplate with silver nitrate. It is used for plating mirrors with an old process using sugar and formaldehyde. Go back to the main page, find the search engine and type in silver plating. About a year ago a person added the proper name for this process. From there you can research the correct conditions. This is an immersion process and does not use electricity. Forget electroplating silver. For your purposes, it requires cyanide. Take a look also at the frequently asked questions. Plating there is more in your capabilities.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
2003

Well we ended up trying it out anywayz since ya took so long, and we silver plated these copper objects. Well at least we think we did get silver. It's a nasty silver color.

Stephanie [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- San Jose, California, USA
2003

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Well, Ted and James, what do you reckon Stephanie and her partner got on their copper?

Bill Reynolds [deceased]
consultant metallurgist - Ballarat, Victoria, Australia
We sadly relate the news that Bill passed away on Jan. 29, 2010.
2003

My guess, a burned silver/silver oxide/ silver? alloy. When a person wants to silver plate, I assume that they want a reasonable final product and not garbage to fill a square. Note the 1 day response to her letter after it was published and her testy response! Makes a person wonder why they should respond to students. Oh well, they say that CA is the land of nuts and fruits.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
2003

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Well we ask our Biology teacher what result from our experiment was, and he said that it was pure silver but he didn't tell us that the copper objects were actually plated.

Thanks for everything!

Stephanie [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- San Jose, California, USA
2003

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Ok our vice president from our school told us that the solution we got wasn't silver but then we don't know what we are going to do because our science fair is this friday! Please we need an answer soon about the solution that we got from our experiment; please answer soon!

Thanks,

Stephanie [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- San Jose, California, USA
2003

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Stephanie, I seriously doubt if it was pure silver. If for no other reason, silver nitrate is very light sensitive. It also has been a subject of research for a number of years and a viable process has never been found, to my knowledge. Quality/purity appears to be a main issue. In my warped view, most biologists are not qualified to make a "pure Silver" statement. I am one of 3 chemists among 50+ biologists (over half with PhD) and a number of them can not even make up a simple 1N solution properly or accurately.

Fact of life, if it were pure silver (no oxides), it would look like a bright new dime. However, I am glad that you got something that pleased the teacher and hope that you got a good grade.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
2003

Well we did our project. We put on there that we asked our biology teacher and that what we got was stated by him. Cause we had no clue what exactly our results were. We still haven't got our grades but I'm not worried. So thanks to you we got more info and even though our project was wack, at least we did it so thanks.

Stephanie [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- San Jose, California, USA
2003