The Silver Mirror, Gone Horribly Wrong

[@stamasd8500]

The problem with silver mirrors made by the Tollens process is that the layer of metal is very thin; if left exposed to air, metallic silver will suck out H2S from the air (yes, the one produced by our own bodies primarily - that was a fart joke) and convert to black and very non-shiny silver sulfide. If you want your mirrors to survive any amount of time you have to protect the exposed metal surface with something that is impermeable to H2S.

[@rylanpeepee]

Would a layer of wax work?

[@flomojo2u]

​@rylanpeepee It's unlikely to help much, the layer is so thin that even mechanical rubbing to polish the wax layer could potentially scratch it. It's probably a better idea to electroplate a thicker layer on once the initial layer is in place.

[@rylanpeepee]

@@flomojo2u Sorry, I should have explained this more in my first comment. What my idea was is that you would melt the wax and pour a even layer on top the exposed silver. This would not involve any rubbing that could potentially scratch the silver.

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

A process which can do this without badly disturbing the silver would be nice to see. Mr. A? Especially where the surface from which the mirroring is desired is not the glass or otherwise clear side.

[@ortholux2343]

@@stamasd8500 I've used a coat of acrylic paint on an optical component I've resilvered. Just poured it on and off. It was fine last time I checked. I do remember the silver layer wrinkled when it was still wet but went back once it was dry. Wondered if I let it get too thick.

[@waltonchan3931]

I’d love to see an external mirroring video, maybe even an attempt at DIY silvered telescope optics! Also accidentally setting up a fulmination is crazy 😆

[@aqua-op]

When apoptosis says i might find something interesting, I invariably find it interesting

[@integral_chemistry]

Love to hear it 😁 I always try to take these classic reactions a step further where I can

[@cezarcatalin1406]

@@integral_chemistry Can you try making a copper mirror/copper plating? It could be useful for making electronic boards and infrared mirrors.

[@bradleyhowes848]

Yes I’d love to see the alternate process!!! Also, silver adheres very well to glass treated with Sn2+ as it bridges between glass and metal. As I understand it, the glass side takes on a Sn4+ arrangement, and the other side of the tin resembles a neutral metallic atom.

[@integral_chemistry]

I'll definitely look into that! I've been working a lot with metal plating lately and it's turned out to be far more complicated than I ever expected. So far I've only figured out good plating techniques for silver, copper, nickel, and zinc. I'm gonna skip cadmium, but I still want to try tin, chromium 3+, and somehow maybe cyanide-free gold

[@bradleyhowes848]

@@integral_chemistry I think I’ve heard of gold dissolved with aqua regia for electro plating, not sure beyond that though. Float glass is an easy way to get glass with tin in it. One side has tin from the molten tin surface they form the sheets on.

[@chemistryofquestionablequa6252]

Oh no, oh no... Lol. That's a LOT of silver fulminate! Much more than I'd be comfortable with too.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah it was a very tense evening 😅 I've read before that out-of-control fulminations like that one can explode on their own, but considering it's aqueous I don't see how that could be possible. Regardless it was very annoying lol

[@mduckernz]

@@integral_chemistryYou’d think, right, but after I’ve had some tetrazole intermediates detonate violently in solution I’ve not been so cavalier about that assumption anymore lol

[@ortholux2343]

Don't prepare Tollens reagent in advance. Read about a high school teacher preparing a batch before the weekend coming back on the monday and moving the large beaker with the solution only for the skin of the unstable silver compound that had formed on top to explode and splash the solution in his eyes. Permanently blinding him.

[@TATPMuncher]

Please help I tried and it did blind me it's so painful

[@Weldoholic]

@@TATPMunchervery funny didn’t laugh

[@wbedard]

That lightbulb was seriously cool!

[@hattree]

Thank you always for the cool music over neat chemistry shots that has a quite Zen quality for me.

[@integral_chemistry]

My pleasure! One of these days I'm planning to put out a few compilations with little/no talking from me and just cool chem and tunes 😎 probably start with one on Crystallizations

[@bear4278]

Lol. The second I heard you talk about washing the Nitrate with alcohol I did a double take and thought “that’s an oopsie” 😝 Glad you are alright mate! Also, be careful with old Tollens’s reagent / mixing Silver with ammonia too! You can get a black percipient which is Silver Nitride (another unstable, energetic silver compound)! Edit: Also, if you (or anyone) ever need a source for pure silver that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, buy 1oz silver bullion coins 😊 They cost a fraction of the price gram for gram compared to lab grade and are still 99.9% pure 😊

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah definitely quite the oopsie lol. I certainly underestimated silver going into this project, even the note on not storing old tollens reagent isn't something I found out until I did some research into how to destroy the fulminate. And yeah bullion definitely sounds like the way to go. It's actually insane what pre-prepared silver nitrate costs even considering the price of silver

[@RomanBekker2022]

Yes I'd love to see a video on general electrolysis-free silver plating

[@rustymustard7798]

Light bulbs are way easier to disassemble if you leave the threads on and just take out the center. You can also screw them back in like that.

[@jaimeortega4940]

Good job and the light bulb looked great!

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you! Yeah the lightbulb was my favorite part. Kinda sad I didn't bother filming the process of plating that one

[@imikla]

Wow! That's valuable cautionary tale! Especially relevant to amateur chemists that make their own reagents!

[@andrews.4780]

Only seen a few silver mirror experiments on YT. I like the extensive detail in this one. Fulminate mishap was scary lol.

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you! And yeah I felt real dumb that day. Weirdly scary mistake for what was so simple on paper

[@braddofner]

Geeze! Uncomfortable? I'm glad you didn't fuliminate yourself with that!

[@Max_Chooch]

You should silver plate specific portions of a distillation head to increase its thermal loss efficiency on the lower portions where you may not want condensation occuring. Maybe also show how to fix the silvering so its not easily rubbed off. This would allow us budding chemists to increase the efficiency of some distillations without having to buy the REALLY expensive silvered lab glass.

[@integral_chemistry]

Ooh I like this idea a lot. Now would this be a silver plating of the outside of the glassware so that the mirroring is directed inward I assume? That would be the easiest way but my concern would be flaking.. definitely worth a shot

[@Max_Chooch]

@integral_chemistry yes, on the outside with the silvered areas facing inward. Preventing flaking will be the real challenge, I suppose, but how do they keep your bathroom mirrors from flaking off or any other mirror for that matter? Is the flaking prevention thermally stable? I was thinking this would be helpful with the distillation of h2so4 as that distillation process requires a lot of heat and takes a long time to distill any significant amount. The silvered areas may help the initial portion of the process when driving off h2o to help prevent h2o condensate from dripping back into the main flask and may speed up the whole process a little bit. It may not work unless the glass is double walled but it might be worth some experimentation.

[@Sugar3Glider]

The lightbulb is really cool

[@integral_chemistry]

Glad you think so, as I mentioned it's definitely my favorite part of the video. Keep it in my room now actually

[@TAR3N]

This one came out a lot better than I expected. The bulb was unexpectedly beautiful!

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you! Yeah weirdly enough the lightbulb idea came to me weeks after I had finished filming everything else. Honestly sad I didn't film it but I wasn't sure it would actually work. Somewhat assumed the inside of the bulb was treated/dirty so the silver wouldn't adhere

[@anotheruser9876]

"Dr. Apoptosis, can I paint his yoo-hoo silver? It's kinda my thing, ya know?"

[@kennedy67951]

Nicely done young man.😊

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you very much 😁

[@experimental_chemistry]

Making the Tollens reagent and letting it react with excess glucose is the best way to recover the metal from silver waste with as less contaminations as possible: just filter off the fully reacted mixture - the rinsed filter cake is pure silver sponge. After drying it can easily be melted together to a nice shiny granule on a piece of carved charcoal with the help of a propane blow torch. Leaving the diammine silver complex of the reagent standing non-reduced for too long is also very dangerous, because very friction sensitive silver nitride can be formed then.

[@rollandjones9556]

Sure thing about external plating. I saw a guy do this using two spray bottles. Thanks for the videos you make.

[@nilamotk]

Yes. 2 part spray on silver chroming mirror thing. Yes. All the yes.

[@quint3ssent1a]

Holy shit that mirror bulb is SHINY

[@integral_chemistry]

It's so nice, one of the few things I've made in lab that I brought into my house and keep around

[@MickTee2k]

External mirroring process? yes! I think I have worked out a method of using the Tollens reaction to coat botanicals as an "Undercoat" for electroplating, but have yet to find the time to test the idea.

[@clytle374]

Would love to see another silver plating technique.

[@wtechboy18]

I'd like to see the outer-surface silvering process. That might be useful for home astronomers that DIY their own objective mirrors. Normally you have to get them shipped off to a silvering company.

[@TishaHayes]

Yeeeaaah, fulminates are not your friend. The partial deafness in my left ear was caused by an unfortunate incident like that; Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I managed only to turn partially around to run in the other direction before something bad happened.

[@integral_chemistry]

Christ.. yeah they do scare the hell out of me. Filming the first half of this video was a very tense day to say the least. It's still so crazy to me looking back on this project at how easy it was to accidentally make such an insane quantity of something so energetic.

[@renevile]

external mirroring video would be a nice thing. i can perhaps use it when i need to electroplate 3d prints...

[@jakuborvos1575]

After that amount of time working with silver nitrate... One thing comes to my mind... Show me your hands 😆

[@SodiumInteresting]

Yes please, front surface silver mirror 🪞 Also any suggestions on preserving such a mirror

[@christopherleubner6633]

Used to plate cover slip glass with this to make very inexpensive but high quality mirrors for use with laser light show galvonometers. 😀

[@eugenezagidullin4893]

Interestingly enough the same ammonia-silver complex is used in making of photographic emulsions

[@DangerousLab]

The fulminate part totally steal the show!

[@integral_chemistry]

Lol glad you think so! I was planning to cut it out but then thought this might be a good way to take this video further than the other Tollens videos on YT.

[@DancingRain]

Awesome video, and lovely light bulb. I'd love to see the external silver process.

[@Jonodrew1286]

👌👌🙏 liking the music too!

[@flyingshards595]

One of my favorite rxns too! Nice!

[@h7qvi]

Would be good to see copper or silver plating onto fibreglass printed circuit board material

[@andrewhaychemistry]

Exterior plating please. What a nightmare with that accidental fulmination, nice tactics to solve it.

[@EddieTheH]

A lot of silver compounds form weird complexes with ammonia. Bit of a PITA at times but also can be really useful.

[@josephanderson4296]

Could you do a video on various cooling baths? What are the benefits/drawbacks of using mixed solvent cooling baths vs traditional N2 or dry ice baths? Why not just chill your reactants?

[@integral_chemistry]

Hm I actually like that idea a lot. Been meaning to find am excuse to use N2 and dry ice anyway lol

[@solanaceae2069]

Have wanted to do this one since I was just a kid.

[@integral_chemistry]

Same! I'm actually shocked I've had this channel so long but just not got around to trying this

[@Luziferne]

A outer Silver and/or Copper plating would really be of Interest, as this could be used as a 1st Layer in Electroplating 3D Prints

[@argoneum]

Close call with fulminate, good you cought it in time. Indeed, it's good idea to keep AgNO₃ far from anything combustible, treat it as it was pure HNO₃, just in case. The least evil thing it does is staining stuff black. Black, that once cleaned, will soon come back 😸

[@user255]

6:40 Small correction, there will not be AgN3, but Ag3N.

[@integral_chemistry]

Ahh thanks for that! I actually read from conflicting sources that either could form, so I do appreciate the clarification.

[@AdricM]

Yes, silver plating random stuff is of interest to me!

[@BiggestBigBoy]

Missed opportunity to make a pocket parabolic death ray.

[@KaitouKaiju]

Aka a solar cigarette lighter

[@addman]

chrome platting plastic might be interesting video

[@monokeras8050]

Well, who could’ve known working with silver was so risky? :p Question though: do you think the silver layer is thick enough to allow for working with hot alkalis, like doing an alcaline fusion reaction in a test tube? Also, what ketone could be oxidised? And into what?

[@integral_chemistry]

Right? I'm gonna think twice before working with silver again. As for the plating, it is VERY thin so I'm not sure it could survive any particularly harsh conditions unfortunately. As for ketones, they are only oxidized by stronger oxidizing agents (usually permanganate) and usually oxidize to carboxylic acids

[@jimsvideos7201]

Turns out I need a silver-plated lightbulb in my life.

[@nikolaiturcan6963]

I would love to see the method for making a mirror on the outer surface! I would like to make first surface mirror for a project and I have the silver nitrate salt but I am doubtful! Could you cover a glass slide and coverglass with the mirror??

[@lineriderman7]

Nice

[@EddieTheH]

Yeah, do the plasma deposition. (I assume that's what the other method is?).

[@integral_chemistry]

I was thinking more of a chemical reduction treatment, but that actually sounds really neat as well. I'll have to give them both a shot

[@jaimeortega4940]

It is strange about needing the Sodium hydroxide instead of just ammonia? Obviously other things going on here that aren't apparent.

[@integral_chemistry]

Yeah I haven't worked with silver nearly as much as most other metals, and it's properties are still very alien to me. This whole project was a jarring crash course in silver, but there is still so much I just don't understand. Remarkably it behaves far more like a group 1 metal than a transition metal in many ways

[@adriansmith3825]

Hey man, just found your channel, you've got some awesome videos and I'm looking into looking into chemistry and a chemical I want to make is Nitrogen triiodide

[@integral_chemistry]

Thank you so much! I will say if you're new to chemistry, nitrogen triiodide might be a tough first thing to try. It's SUPER unstable to the point it's really tough to isolate without it decomposing (usually dangerously). Definitely one I'd make sure you take every precaution before attempting, but I love to hear people interested in chemistry 😁

[@aaronhubbard7674]

So, I do Lapidary (Gem Cutting) and in the Lapidary world, there are clear faceted stones that are too deeply saturated to have a lively optical display. Usually Reds, Blues, and Greens. So, instead of just cutting them shallow for color, I was thinking I could apply this mirror plating to the Pavilion of shallow cuts to make much more optically pleasing stones with the deeply saturated materials cut shallow. Is this Tollins solution available for purchase anywhere? I would really like to try doing that.

[@user-zt4zm9ci2x]

It's cool, but you can use Ga to be plated on watch glass

[@ZoonCrypticon]

Could you also show a copper mirror reaction ?

[@questionablechemists]

In your experience, what do you find to be the most important apparatus necessary to have in carrying out the typical reactions in your videos?

[@integral_chemistry]

Good question! Although maybe a bit broad. Do you mean glassware or equipment? Also depends a lot on whether you do more organic or inorganic chemistry. Generally I'd say the indispensable things include: Hot plate, heating mantle, stir plate, boiling flasks, simple liebig distillation glassware (24/40), Beakers, erlenmeyer flasks, graduated cylinders, watch glasses, DC power supply, litmus paper, thermometer, etc. But I'd say the most useful thing that isn't explicitly necessary that I've ever purchased is a vacuum pump and buchner funnel. Vacuum filtration is never really necessary but boy is it useful.

[@questionablechemists]

Thank you so much for your answer! Lastly, I do wonder how you handle the fumes you produce, do you wear a special mask and where do they go, is it all taking place in a fume hood?

[@TheObnoxiousSquirrel]

I'm just curious, would this process work for gold?

[@pvc988]

Would it be possible to plate PCB vias with it? Then use silver as base for copper electroplating (to make metal layer thicker)?

[@DanielGBenesScienceShows]

Great video! What is the song at the end?

[@gannas42]

Despite the temptation to leave this at 777 likes, please accept my contribution in like 778.

[@integral_chemistry]

Ha well thank you kindly 😎

[@jonhammshog]

lol, whoops, good thinking with the sodium chloride.

[@stazeII]

Would be cool to see electroplating silver.

[@bryce4359]

Did you use old silver coins for your silver source?

[@integral_chemistry]

I did.. I have an old video on it which upset a lot of people considering their value for collectors

[@bryce4359]

@@integral_chemistry it depends on the coin and how old it is and the condition of it. Not very many are worth more than the silver value. Silver isn't very expensive tho

[@Staroy]

Yo when are you gonna teach us how to make blue crystal meth brother?

[@cannibalcactus]

do the other thing plz

[@gsestream]

what about that alchemistry, talking sounds just like magic chanting. solar concentrator mirror/parabolic as a practical application.

[@procactus9109]

But does it taste shiny ?/I like shiny things.

[@christopherleubner6633]

Pucker factor 😳💩 chemistry edition...

[@dottedboxguy]

2 things to try out maybe : coat the outside of a lightbulb and plug it in, and coat the outside of a round fish tank, and put a camera with a light in it

[@htomerif]

Silver is weird.

[@integral_chemistry]

Very. Honestly that's my main takeaway from this project. Silver and mercury are both so weird with their Redox properties.

[@KrusherMike]

0/10 Worst mixed drink ever.

[@ahh59823]

I'm in Iraq . How is the liquid in a lithium battery made? I'm looking a lot Nothing about that liquid Not available It's a secret Who can make it? can you do it? can you put a tutorial about it ??????????

[@argoneum]

Wikipedia says: "Liquid electrolytes in lithium-ion batteries consist of lithium salts, such as LiPF₆, LiBF₄ or LiClO₄ in an organic solvent, such as ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, and diethyl carbonate.[129]" - more on Wikipedia.

[@ahh59823]

@@argoneum Wikipedia is lying Any videos about this? I just saw a video of a Russian chemist When he talked about something like that, it was different Indeed, Russian chemistry it's very easy When you search for chemistry in Russian You see very different things

[@KazeMunashii]

this is basically just a single step on a gold smelting channel. how bout something more difficult

[@integral_chemistry]

Lol very fair. I can certainly do more complex, got a few works in progress you might find more engaging

[@jamesmiddleton8128]

Is it weird that I like ur speech impediment? No hate, just. It hits different...

[@integral_chemistry]

Lol glad you think so. I do think that and the constant mistakes I make are the kinds of things I've always liked in YT videos. I feel these days most youtube videos are too perfectly well produced that they feel almost sterile. I liked the wild days of youtube where everything was 480p, no cuts, and a single take