Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de Educación

Bilingüe

Selected Topics of Chemistry

Lab Report stage 3

Cleaning sliver

Leilania Lizeth Gomez Ruiz Grupo: 419

Yasir Arath Berlanga Infante 2004026

Valeria Guzmán Serna 2009841
Naomi Kaire Gallardo 2022361
Ximena Terrazas Santillana 1997698
Jimena Alejandra Jardon De Avila 1997789
 “Cleaning Silver”

Introduction
During this stage we did an experiment in which we tried a process to
clean silver, since it generates dirt with the contact to air, we found this
activity really important. Most of the utensils we daily use for eating are
made of silver, so we can clearly see the importance of this. Also, we
want to remark how the experiment lets us see exactly the type of dirt we
might be consuming if we don't properly take care of the utensils or
properly clean them. Once again, showing us how chemistry impacts
completely in our daily life and can be seen even in things we never
imagined.

Purpose
With the following practice our objective is to clean silver from its
dirty state to its clean state all this in our home. And we will also
learn what reactions happen in this project.

Hypothesis
Since silver creates dirt with contact to air, believe that to take away
this dirt we must use a reaction to take out this dirt and have our
silver clean.

Materials:

- Measuring cup with 150 ml of water

- Spoon (½ tbsp NaCI + ½ tbsp NaHCO3)
- Tweezers
- Aluminum paper
- Metallic cup
- Toothbrush
- Napkins
- Store
Procedure

- Put aluminum paper inside the metal cup and put inside the
silver object
- Add salt in the water and the NaHCO3 (baking soda) and mix
it
- Boil it for 5 to 10 minutes
- Take out the aluminum with the tweezer and carefully take out
the silver object with burning yourself
- Brush the object with the toothbrush to take out the tarnish of
the object

Results

clean silver dirty silver

↑ ↑
Ag + H2S →Ag2S + H2
↓ ↓
gas in the air gas in the air

dirty silver clean silver

↑ ↑
3Ag2S + 2Al → 6Ag + Al 2S3
↓ ↓
oxidizes or reduces

Al2S3 + 6H2O → 2Al (OH)3 + 3H2S

↓
Rotten egg smell
Discussion
As we can see in our results, the bracelet was complete clean after
the experiment. What happens here? Before the experiment, the
silver when it is in contact with sulfuric acid in the air, it produces a
substance that make the silver get the dark appearance; and after
the experiment, when the silver sulfate reacts with the aluminum foil
it produces the silver clean again. This is a single replacement
reaction which shows a way to clean a silver object. The hypothesis
was correct.

Conclusion
Taking everything into account, this might be a helpful way to clean
our jewelry in case we can't go outside and visit a person who can
clean it (professionally). Due to the current situation, this
experiment was funny and interesting to everyone, at the same time
we understood the reactions of silver with other substances during
the cleaning process of said element.

Individual conclusions

Yasir Arath Berlanga Infante

In conclusion, I really liked this laboratory practice because we saw
the cleaning of silver and I see that it is a delicate procedure
because you have to heat the silver or aluminum and then let it cool
to be able to remove it so that the silver or aluminum will be clean
another thing I liked is that we are advancing very well at a good
pace at each stage and that makes it a little easier to understand
the class, but I really liked this practice, and it is very entertaining.

Valeria Guzmán Serna

For me, this was a funny way to understand the reactions of silver
when it gets clean. Also, I consider this as a helpful and interesting
way of learning it. I personally don't get involved too much in
chemistry itself, but I really enjoy watching the lab practice and
hope to see similar experiments in the future.

Ximena Terrazas Santillana

In conclusion I liked this practice since this is something I didn't
know how to do as well as to know what is the reaction that
happens in the practice of cleaning a silver object. Now I
understand what process is happening as well as the reaction that
is made in this.

Naomi Kaire Gallardo

In this experiment we learned how to clean silver and its reactions
and I can conclude that this experiment can come in handy
because most of us use silver in our daily life and a lot of people
don't know how to clean it . Learning how silver reacts was very
interesting.

Jimena Alejandra Jardon de Avila

During this experiment we could observe a complete different way

in which silver can be cleaned, in my personal point of view I also
learned that silver actually produces dirt just with the touch with air,
and I truly find this very interesting. I think that this only shows us
the importance of the application of chemistry on our daily life and
how we can find it literally everywhere; also, it lets me see how
sometimes when I apply normal or day-to-day things in any aspect
of science I can find very interesting things that may have never
even crossed my mind.