What chemical reaction happens when you put copper into silver nitrate?

A. Hi, Mel. NO₃ is what we call a radical -- a bunch of atoms that will stick together in this form in most chemical reactions -- so the NO₃ remains NO₃.

The reason the reaction happens is because silver is more noble than copper, so silver will be reduced to metal in preference to copper.

How it happens is that the silver nitrate is a liquid and a molecule of silver nitrate can find itself touching the copper surface. When this happens the copper atom transfers two electrons to silver atoms, oxidizing the copper to a dissolved ion and reducing the silver ions to silver metal.

Regards,

A. The reaction is Single Displacement. The reaction works because Copper is more reactive than Silver, which is stated in the metal reactivity series. Reactivity of metals follows the trend: Group I > Group II > Aluminum > Transition metals (Iron, Copper) > "Jewelry type transition metals" (Silver, Gold, Platinum). Silver nitrate is great to use in single displacement reactions because it is very easy to displace silver. Hope that answer helps.

Thanks, Ellie, that's what we wanted to hear -- that some students actually did the experiment with quantitative measurements and determined the truth of the matter :-)

Regards,

A. The coefficient 2 goes in front of the Silver & Silver nitrate if any of you are wondering; and when you do this lab, the filtrate should be a blueish color.

A. Yes, the liquid does turn a blueish colour. However, the liquid does need to stand for at least thirty minutes for this change to occur. Crystals also form on the copper wire after a few hours.

Ryan, we are saying that when you put copper into a solution of Silver Nitrate, the solution turns blue; the white stuff is silver, it looks white because it is in a blue solution, the copper does not turn black what so ever, the blue is Copper 2 Nitrate.

Madi, The liquid turns blue very quickly or very slowly depending on the concentration of the Silver Nitrate being used, I used a 6M solution (Silver nitrate) and the silver was almost immediately (with in 5 seconds) replaced with copper, the liquid almost just as quickly went blue. If you use a low molar concentration of Silver Nitrate, like 1M or 0.1M, then the reaction takes longer, I just did a five Day lab at school with this, and got a perfect score by the way.

You're wrong! The solution turns a blue color. Maybe you did the experiment wrong.

It actually depends on how much of the reactants you have for you to see the intensity of the blue-ish tint of the solution. Some of us had clearly blue solutions while others were faint and still others looked completely clear. We had different amounts of the reactants when we did this in class.

Guys we also did this in class and all of ours turned a hazy blue... it depends on how much of the solution and the copper you use along with any water that is included. Most normal copper wire will be a 2+ ion. Unless your teacher states that you are using 1+ copper it is safe to assume that it is 2+ (but double check anyway). Nevertheless it is a single replacement either way.

A. I definitely agree with Jonathan and Ted.The chemical equation is perfect with the balancing done properly.

RING!!!! BUZZ!!!!! RING!!!!!

Wake up Bob! Wake UP! Algebra class ended while you were sleeping ... you're in chemistry!

Regards,

Sorry Sam. There is no such thing as Ag(NO₃)₂ because silver never has a +2 oxidation state.

Regards,

Hi Jenny. That is a great question, and I'm proud of you for asking it. As someone from the plating industry, I know that copper always ionizes at plus 2 in acid solutions like chloride, nitrate, sulphate, & fluoborate and in the slightly alkaline copper pyrophosphate; and it ionizes at plus 1 in copper cyanide. I also know that copper oxidizes into a mix of Cu2O (cupric oxide) and CuO (cuprous oxide) from simple heating in air.

Unfortunately, I'll have to defer to a chemist as to why :-(

Regards,

Dear Jenny,

I can take you out of your doubt, or I hope I can explain it well...

In acid aqueous solutions, the Cu+ is unstable. It reacts really fast with the acid ion (H+) to form Cu++ and hydrogen, both species stable in this condition. In alkaline media, there is some competition with Cu+ and Cu++, and they are in equilibrium. If you add some complexing agent as cyanide, as Ted has mentioned, the equilibrium breaks its balance and the reaction goes one or other side depending on which is the most stable complex, if Cu(I) or Cu(II). [Cu(CN)4]3- is more stable than [Cu(CN)4]2-, so the first is the reactions that "wins"...

All is equilibrium, all is balance... When you add something that affects somehow some one of the elements in balance, you are breaking a balance and creating another. This is some basic Thermodynamics.

Hope this is clear, I'm glad that there is some interest in chemistry in some places!

A. Hi Theiry.

Tell me what "life purpose of this experiment" means to you and I will be happy to try to answer.

Regards,

A. Hi Thiery,

Over the Christmas holidays in the UK there was a series of lectures (three of them) aimed at the 11-16 year olds, called the Christmas Lectures and sub-titled this year "The Modern Alchemist". It shows how chemistry influences all parts of our lives, thoroughly entertaining and if you can access the BBC iPlayer in the USA well worth watching (would even recommend it to the the adult audience as well).

----
Ed. note: If anyone can offer a link/URL for this, please do. We searched and went in endless circles on the BBC site, but found only brief clips from the series, all of which are broken (unknown whether it's because we are from USA or why. Thanks.

A. Thanks Emma. I don't recall the concept of "spectator ion" from the old days when I learned chemistry. But I see a couple different definitions of spectator ion, and I think you are mistaken about silver being one according to any of those definitions.

Regards,

A. Hi Margaret. You can often make good progress by reading up how things are made and whether heat is required to make them, and by recognizing that reactions usually run in the direction that releases energy. Good luck. But why does it matter to you? We try hard to not be enablers for students who want to read homework answers rather than thinking through their assignments, and it's hard to tell who falls into that category and who doesn't when a question is asked which doesn't include any "why" or "how" but just asks for a one-word answer. Sorry. Maybe you're supposed to measure the heat input or output?

Regards,

? Hi Jimi. Evidence seems to show that the second reaction is the predominant one and what normally happens. You seem to be suggesting that if you keep exposing Cu(NO3)2 to additional copper metal, it will become 2Cu(NO3)

Cu(NO3)2 + Cu => 2Cu(NO3)

I am not a chemist, but doubt that this will happen except perhaps at very high temperatures in the presence of a catalyst. Have you ever actually witnessed a reaction of Cu with Silver Nitrate which produced this Cu(I) ?

Regards,

A. Actually, Jimi is correct. I've done this experiment a few times and I have gotten Cu(I). There is more than one balanced equation.

Thanks Serina. Yes, Jimi's equations balance, but simply putting the same number of atoms of each element on each side of the equal sign doesn't mean the reaction will actually happen :-)

For example, we can also write the "balanced equation":

Cu(NO3)2 + Cu => CuN2 + CuO6 (which balances but is nonsense)

So the question isn't whether we can write a balanced equation; the question is whether the reaction actually produces CuNO₃ ions or Cu(NO₃)₂ ions (or both, and then in what proportion?).

So in your experience what is the condition that causes the generation of CuNO₃ ions for you and some people while most people seem to get Cu(NO₃)₂? Thanks!

Regards,

A. Hi Sadia. Yes, because of their positions in the redox potential list.

But are you certain that you clearly understand the question you wrote? Getting an answer to a question that you don't understand will not help you do anything except mislead your teachers about where they should be focusing their continuing efforts. Good luck.

Regards,

Hi Anthony. Carl R & Bradley A said it was single replacement and nobody has challenged them on the claim.

Regards,

 Hi Prithvi. Two readers have said it is single displacement based on their understanding of what single displacement vs. double displacement means. I'm sure they are right based on my understanding of what single displacement means.

It's fine to ask for help answering a question as long as you're sure you understand the question ... but if you post a question and you don't understand the question, you're not actually doing science. So please give us your definition of single or double displacement. If you can't, please tell the teacher you don't understand. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Martina. Because you called it an "experiment", I assume you are a teacher or science aide helping with student projects rather than a commercial application. I believe that simply putting a sizable amount of soap-free 00 steel wool ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] into the solution, to allow "cementation" to take place, will remove all the silver & copper, and render the solution non-problematic.

But if you are looking for something slightly more exotic, like recovering the silver first, please see topic 6262, "Silver refining problem: Removing copper from silver nitrate" and recover the silver as a filterable solid before removing the copper with the steel wool. Good luck.

Regards,

 Thank you, Ted. I've decided for the "exotic" alternative :-)