In a message dated 8/2/2001 12:03:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:
> I have a liter of CS that agglomerated to a pale violet color over a > months time. I put about 1 teaspoon of H2O2 in the bottle and it turned > back to colorless over night. > It has a fairly stong TE. > Perhaps H2O2 attacks the larger particles first? > Perhaps there is some other componant in the largest particles crystal > structure other than just silver that is more sensitive to H2O2? > Ken > Ken: Assuming you didn't add excess H2O2, the peroxide you did add would react with a specific proportion of metallic silver atoms present. Since the surface to mass ratio is higher for small particles compared to large particles, the smaller particles would disappear first, so that the average particle size remaining would rise, following a highly skewed parabolic curve. I believe the particle size distribution would get very narrow as well. Finally, the largest particles would be all that's left and these would begin to react with the remaining incremental additions of H2O2, producing uniformly smaller particles until all particles disappeared. You could probably follow developments using a laser by looking at the Tyndall effect. Roger
