272

Classic Chemical Demonstrations

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97. Light sensitive silver salts

Topic
Photochemistry, everyday chemistry (photography).

Timing
About 15 min.

Level
Pre-16.

Description
A precipitate of silver chloride, made by the reaction of silver nitrate and sodium chloride, is filtered at the pump. Opaque masks such as coins are placed on the filter paper which is then placed under a photoflood bulb. The silver chloride that is exposed to the light reacts to form silver and turns grey while that under the masks remains white. Silver bromide works similarly.

Apparatus
w w w w w w w w w One 400 cm3 beaker. Buchner funnel (about 7 cm diameter or larger). Buchner flask (500 cm3 or 1 dm3), and adapter. Access to filter pump. Filter paper such as Whatman no. 40 to fit the Buchner funnel. 275 W photoflood bulb with suitable holder. Coins or other small opaque objects to act as masks. Pair of scissors. Dropping pipette.

Chemicals
The quantities given are for one demonstration. w w w w 500 cm3 of 0.01 mol dm3 silver nitrate. 250 cm3 of 0.1 mol dm3 sodium chloride. 250 cm3 of 0.1 mol dm3 potassium bromide. 50 cm3 of 1 mol dm3 sodium thiosulphate.

Method
Before the demonstration
Set up the suction filtration apparatus.

The demonstration
Mix 100 cm3 of silver nitrate solution with 50 cm3 of sodium chloride solution. Filter the resulting white precipitate of silver chloride at the pump. If the ambient light is bright, cover the funnel with aluminium foil to prevent premature exposure of the

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silver chloride. It is not important if some silver chloride comes through the filter paper. Remove the silver chloride-impregnated filter paper from the funnel and place it on a larger filter paper or piece of blotting paper on the bench. Place a photoflood bulb in a suitable holder about 10 cm away from the silver chloride-impregnated filter paper. Place two coins (or other small opaque objects) on the filter paper to mask the light and switch the bulb on. Within about two minutes the un-masked paper will turn grey due to the presence of silver. Switch off the bulb and remove the coin masks to show that the silver chloride below them remains unchanged white. Cut the filter paper in half so that one of the unexposed circles is on each half. Take one half and, using a dropping pipette, soak the unexposed circle several times with sodium thiosulphate solution, allowing the solution to drip into the sink. Use about 5 cm3 of solution in total. Rinse the filter paper with water from a wash bottle to remove thiosulphate. This treatment will dissolve away most of the unchanged silver chloride from the unexposed circle and mimics the fixing stage of the photographic process. Replace both halves of the filter paper under the photoflood bulb without the coin masks and switch on for a further two minutes or so. The untreated circle will turn grey, so that it is virtually the same colour as the previously exposed part of the filter paper. The circle that has been treated with sodium thiosulphate will remain mostly white.

Visual tips
If the filter paper could be mounted vertically by pinning to a cork pin board, the audience could see the colour change more clearly. The masks could then be, say, drawing pins. Other objects, such as shapes or initials cut from aluminium foil, could be used as masks.

Teaching tips
Explain that these reactions are the basis of photography. Explain that photochemical reactions like these are the reason for silver compounds being stored in brown bottles.

Theory
The silver ions in the silver chloride are reduced by the action of light to metallic silver. AgCl(s) Ag(s) + 12 Cl2(g) In real photography, a latent image is first formed which is then developed by the use of an organic reducing agent. This is followed by fixing in which unreacted silver halide is dissolved away in sodium thiosulphate solution (called hypo by photographers) as complex ions so that the image can be exposed to light without further blackening. This produces a negative image which is blackest where most light has fallen. AgCl(s) + 2Na2S2O3(aq) Na3Ag(S2O3)2(aq) + NaCl(aq)

Extensions
Repeat using potassium bromide solution instead of sodium chloride. The precipitate of silver bromide is yellowish and reacts faster to the light than the chloride. It is also easier for the demonstrator to see when the yellowish precipitate has dissolved when treating with thiosulphate solution.

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Further details
Silver iodide does not appear to be effective for this demonstration, giving no colour change after several minutes of exposure. Sunlight could be used instead of a photoflood lamp but it is slower and less reliable.

Safety
Wear eye protection. It is the responsibility of teachers doing this demonstration to carry out an appropriate risk assessment.