I just discovered something that will remove silver stains within a
minute or two. I have a countertop which is rather badly stained with
silver from over the years. Although hydrogen peroxide can be used to
remove new silver stains, my experience is that once it has sat a while,
it tarnishes becoming silver sulfide. Silver is happiest with sulfur,
so I had been unable to find anything to react with it a and produce a
soluble silver compound. Unfortunately silver sulfide is 100%
insoluble, so once you have the stain, it seemed to be there forever. I
have applied hydrogen peroxide to these stains in the past for hours at
a time.
Well, last night I made up a few drops of activated MMS to put on a
wart. A drop of it fell on the stained counter, and I wiped it up after
about a minute. Right where the drop was, the counter was completely
stain free, a nice yellow circle in a sea of brown/grey stain (counter
is yellow).
So I did some experimenting. Even if applied immediately after mixing
the acid and sodium chlorite, it works very well. To check my theory
that it was actually reacting with tarnish, I put a drop on a badly
tarnished spoon, and the tarnish was immediately removed. However it
also reacted with the silver making the surface look more like pearl
than silver (might have formed a layer of silver chloride or simply
roughened it up), but the black of the silver sulfide was removed almost
immediately.
This is what seems to be happening.
The activated mms produces chlorine dioxide. ClO2 splits up producing
both chlorine as well as oxygen. Although silver much rather unite with
sulfur than with chlorine, sulfur likes the oxygen better, leaving the
silver to make sulfur dioxide (which with water produces sulfuric acid),
and the silver then reacts with the free chlorine:
Ag + ClO2 -> AgCl + O2
AgS + ClO2 + H20 -> AgCl + H2SO4
The silver chloride, being slightly soluble, can then be removed with water.
Now, I was working with MMS (28% sodium chlorite), and 50% citric acid
solution, equal amounts of each. This likely will work with lemon or
lime activated as well, but concentration will be much lower, so I
expect it to take longer. The addition of vitamin C, and antioxidant
might interfere as well, but I have not tried it and can't say for sure.
Marshall
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