Get silver by plating silver nitrate onto copper

A. The silver will reduce out of the silver nitrate onto copper but this a very thin layer of silver. I am sure there is a chemical that will mix with silver nitrate to cause the silver to precipitate out if this is really what you want to do. Keep looking in your local college library.

A. I'm a student at Bishop Kenny High School. My chemistry class did an experiment using silver nitrate and copper. The end product was silver and a blue solution of copper nitrate [affil links]. We then filtered our product using filter paper and a beaker [beakers on eBay or Amazon] to catch any liquid. I later saw a demo with Mg but the silver produced was not as much as that of the copper. And a word of warning, the silver nitrate may turn your hands brown, so wear rubber gloves [on eBay or Amazon].

A. I attend a senior chemistry class in Ontario and we used silver nitrate and copper and it worked extremely well. Better then magnesium because of the electron transfer. .... try putting magnesium in copper 2 sulphate and try to figure out where the hydrogen gas comes from, it's interesting...

A. Hello I am also a student and am currently writing a write up on this lab, funny. Copper works well so long as there is enough surface area (curling the wire around a pencil first will help!). After you have a solution of silver nitrate (aqueous) put copper wire in it almost touching the bottom. Yes, you get a thin layer, but if you shake the copper wire the layer of silver will fall off; repeating this process, silver will accumulate at the bottom. After about fifteen minutes pour the solution into a filter, and the silver will be left in the filter, the solution should turn blue after a while, if it turns brown you've done it wrong.

Hi, Jodie.

As far as I know, silver nitrate is a laboratory chemical available from most lab supply companies. It probably is also a chemical available in bulk from commodity chemical suppliers, although I haven't sourced it that way. But you would need to do pricing and delivery negotiation privately. Good luck.

Regards,