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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
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for Metal Finishing since 1989
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How to make Silver nitrate as large crystals
Q. Sir, I am a hobbyist and I want to know how to grow crystals which should be large. When I react silver with HNO3 and heat than only a powder type forms. But I want large crystals which are transparent. Please help me sir.
Mohammad Waseem.Hobbyist - Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA
December 15, 2010
A. First, the crystals will not stay the original color as they react with light to form a brown or black surface. Old black and white photography.
You grow crystals by taking your powder and dissolving it in distilled water to a saturation point. Place it in a bowl with an inch or so of liquid, put a saucer on top of the bowl that has a square inch or two of the bowl open. Shield the it from light and wait a couple of weeks. Harvest the largest crystals and dissolve them in double distilled water, cover partially, shield and wait 3 weeks. If this did not produce large enough crystals, repeat again with only the largest crystals.
Silver nitrate will not grow crystals as fast as say copper sulphate. Look up the lattice structure of both on the internet.
- Navarre, Florida
December 16, 2010
Q. Sir. Thanks for the answer, but I still have a problem that I saw the process of making silver nitrate. I want to know how to make dry transparent silver nitrate which should contain nearly 63% of silver. It is made in not that sequence. First of all, dissolve silver in nitric acid and they filter out the whole solution means to purify. I want to know how to purify it. Then they evaporate it. Then white crystals are obtained which has some yellow color and then they add distilled water to it which is shrunk and breaks it down. Then they evaporate it out. Then pure silver nitrate is obtained in color-less/transparent form. Sir all the above is the procedure to make silver nitrate in crystalline form. Sir I have a lot of mistakes in this operation. Please tell me the right way. And sir one more thing is that impurities came in black color. How to separate it? These impurities also occurs in 999 silver. I have 120 grams silver. How to prepare it. Please sir I will be very thankful.
Mohammad WaseemHobbyist - Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, INDIA
January 19, 2011
Hi, cousin Mohammad. But wait a minute there please. Where did you see this process of making silver nitrate that you are trying to duplicate . . . in a factory? People would like to help you with your hobbyist quantity of 120 grams of silver, but we can only help you regarding what is printed in books and journals, or is common generic knowledge. We can't help people figure out the details of a possible trade secret proprietary process that they have witnessed in other factories :-)
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. I am not an expert in this area.
Every time you redissolve the new crystals, the purity will increase. Do not let it go to dryness. Filter the crystals each time or you carry over some of the impurities. You can reprocess the liquid again and again with some losses each time.
Again, do it in the dark as much as possible. Red light is used in a photo lab.
To recover the black stuff as silver, melt it.
- Navarre, Florida
January 20, 2011
Q. Sir, I made silver nitrate many times but I did many mistakes in it. Crystal becomes black after a few days and they would be too thin.
I just want to ask when should we add distilled water -- during the process or in the beginning? And what amount of distilled water should we add?
mohammad adil- Pakistan
August 3, 2012
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