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Things You'll Need
Instructions
Add 200 mL of water to a 400 mL beaker and heat until it comes to a rolling boil. Put the sterling scrap in an evaporating dish and add 5 mL of 8 M nitric acid. Allow the acid to evaporate over the boiling water in the beaker. The metal will dissolve. All these steps should be done under a fume hood as toxic gases can be created.
Add 3mL of sulfuric acid to the residue in your evaporating dish. Heat over a beaker of boiling water and allow to evaporate.
Add 8 mL of ammonium hydroxide when the evaporating dish has cooled. Remember these steps must all be done under a fume hood. There should be no solid residue remaining and the solution should be blue in color.
Pour the blue solution from the evaporating dish into a beaker and add 125 mL of distilled water. Add sulfuric acid very slowly while stirring the beaker until the solution is acidic. Acidity can be tested with litmus paper.
Add an additional 25 mL of sulfuric acid to the beaker while agitating.
Place copper wire or rod into the solution once it has cooled completely. Allow the copper to sit over night to collect the silver.
Shake the silver off of the copper once the crystals have been formed. Clean the copper with distilled water.
Filter the silver crystals out of the solution and dispose of the solution. Contact your local waste management center to find out how to legally dispose of toxic solutions in your area. Wash the silver thoroughly with distilled water.