Marshall wrote > > This goes along with my thinking that it would be a great way to test CS. > But I found that CS tends to stabilize H2O2 instead. Also I found that if > you put silver metal into concentrated nitric acid, the reaction will be > swift producing silver nitrate. But if you mix nitric acid with CS there is > virtually no reaction unless you bring the temperature up to almost boiling.
When you react silver with nitric acid the Ag is oxidised and replaces the H+ in the acid, resulting in (Ag+ and NO3- siver nitrate) and H hydrogen. The hydrogen is not released as gas as one might expect but reacts with a further quantity of the nitric acid, forming water and an oxide of nitrogen. Metalic silver and charged colloids of silver (groups of silver ions) are not the same. Silver ions are already oxidised (lost an electron, Ag+). Hydrogen ions (H+) cannot further oxidise Ag+, so no reaction takes place. > My take on this is that the reaction is mediated by a galvnaic current flow > from impurities in the silver metal. IE. copper and silver have different > potentials, so if there are any copper (or other impurity) atoms in a piece > of silver, the "reactions" will take place, but the CS has so few atoms of > copper or other impurities in it the majority of particles are pure silver, > and thus do not react. > > Marshall Not so. Copper and other impurities may or may not react with nitric acid, but this will not affect the reaction with metallic silver, if there is enough nitric acid remaining after any other reactions. The silver in CS is not metallic silver and this is why the reaction is different. Ivan. -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: silver-list-requ...@eskimo.com -or- silver-digest-requ...@eskimo.com with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@id.net>
