Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Silver Nitrate for Sale

VSEPR_VOID - 20-2-2018 at 17:43

Come one come all; I have 48.9g of 99.9% silver nitrate for sale that I prepared today and have to use for. I would like to sell it for 35 dollars plus shipping.

The sample was prepared by treating a 99.9% silver round with 15.6 molar nitric acid, from a lab supplier, and distilled water. The resulting product was recrystallized, pulverized, and stored in an air tight HDPE container.

If you are interested in purchasing it please send me a U2U.

fdcf338ed20d4deca86d29924cfbf558.jpg - 28kB

[Edited on 22-2-2018 by VSEPR_VOID]

JJay - 21-2-2018 at 17:32

Hmm... what color is it? Do you have a photo of the final product?

WangleSpong5000 - 22-2-2018 at 05:42

Quote: Originally posted by JJay  
Hmm... what color is it? Do you have a photo of the final product?


Black once spilled on ones lab coat... good luck getting that out lol

aga - 22-2-2018 at 09:31

Getting it up to a decent purity is probably where a lot of cost comes in.

The stuff i made ended up grey.

The reagent-grade stuff i bought off hegi is very much whiter.

Edit:

48.9g of AgNO3 = about 31g Ag
Current Ag price is $0.534/g
... or about $17 in Ag

[Edited on 22-2-2018 by aga]

VSEPR_VOID - 22-2-2018 at 13:28

Quote: Originally posted by JJay  
Hmm... what color is it? Do you have a photo of the final product?


Its milk white with the slightest trace of light blue. Like salt reflecting the sky on a spring day.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/173174396828

VSEPR_VOID - 23-2-2018 at 17:56

Printed out a label for the bottle

Capture.PNG - 125kB

Loptr - 24-2-2018 at 07:55

I keep mine slightly acidic and it stays bright white. I bought a few silver bars a while back and made a bunch of silver nitrate, and have maybe 100g+ left.

[Edited on 24-2-2018 by Loptr]

unionised - 24-2-2018 at 09:17

Getting it fairly pure is easy.
Proving that purity is more of a challenge.
Have you done so?

aga - 24-2-2018 at 13:13

How does an amateur prove the purity to any level of confidence ?

For mine, it's colour was wrong, easy to see when compared to another sample.

@VSEPR_VOID being the Cheapest is quite often the wrong way to sell a product, unless you have a vast quantity and need to shift it out fast.

Revise the listing and the price to be the "Best Quality" on ebay. "Best Value" even.

The word "Cheapest" implies low quality.

VSEPR_VOID - 24-2-2018 at 13:13

Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
Getting it fairly pure is easy.
Proving that purity is more of a challenge.
Have you done so?


The nitric acid I used was provided by a lavatory supplier and was of exceptional purity. I also used distilled water and silver from a reputable supplier (99.9)

unionised - 24-2-2018 at 14:15

Quote: Originally posted by VSEPR_VOID  
Quote: Originally posted by unionised  
Getting it fairly pure is easy.
Proving that purity is more of a challenge.
Have you done so?


The nitric acid I used was provided by a lavatory supplier and was of exceptional purity. I also used distilled water and silver from a reputable supplier (99.9)

You just won the typo of the week award for "provided by a lavatory supplier"
Also, that's all very well, but how does a buyer know that you washed your glassware properly?
Also, did you check the purity?
If it went blue you know that there was some impurity present- presumably copper.

Has the product decomposed at all when dried?

I'm not getting at you; I'm just pointing out that a buyer might wonder all those things...



[Edited on 24-2-18 by unionised]

aga - 24-2-2018 at 14:33

We're not trying to do anything here VSEPR other than Help you sell your product.

It is highly unlikely that an SM member will buy it, although that does happen sometimes.

A good ebay listing will see it sold quicker.

unionised - 24-2-2018 at 14:34

Quote: Originally posted by aga  
How does an amateur prove the purity to any level of confidence ?


Usually by titration.
also by showing what's not there.
For example, if you take a gram of it, dissolve it in water and add excess ammonia there should be no insoluble material (no alkaline earth metals or iron) and the solution should be colourless (no copper cobalt, nickel etc).
Take another gram, dissolve it in water. Add an excess of dilute HCl.
Filter off the AgCl and evaporate the solution to dryness there should be no residue.

And so on.
By the time you have done all those sorts of tests, you will have used enough material, and spent enough on other reagents, to see why the certified "good" stuff is so expensive.

aga - 24-2-2018 at 14:46

Wooo !

I still have the bit i made and all of the stuff i got from hegi.

That would be a more interesting comparison than just the colour.

Texium - 24-2-2018 at 21:41

I have some from Hegi too- it's exceptionally colorless

unionised - 25-2-2018 at 05:28

I have some washing soda that''s pretty colourless too.
But that doesn't tell me much about how much Na2CO3 is in it

Radium212 - 25-2-2018 at 05:44

Open your listing to offers. I sell thorium mantles on eBay (as test sources), and the ones with a "Make an Offer" option always do better. You can always haggle them up. And if anyone's looking for some thoriated lantern mantles...

VSEPR_VOID - 25-2-2018 at 20:15

Quote: Originally posted by Radium212  
Open your listing to offers. I sell thorium mantles on eBay (as test sources), and the ones with a "Make an Offer" option always do better. You can always haggle them up. And if anyone's looking for some thoriated lantern mantles...


Good advise in addition to the "best value" comment. Thank you. I have access to some p-1000, p-200, and p-100s at the lab so I will be doing those tests for purity described above with the goal of using less than .9 grams. I will have to revise the listing to reflect the change in mass. All great advice!

VSEPR_VOID - 2-3-2018 at 04:08

An update,

The item sold on Ebay for 32 dollars. Provided the customer provides good feed back I may try this again. Its only a few dollars profit but on a larger scale I could see this covering the expenses of the hobby, and an hour in the lab is better than an hour doing anything else. I will also have to work on improving my yield. I had only a 90% yield making the silver nitrate which is abysmal. I a tribute this low yield to an error I made in filtering the solution of nitric acid and siilver nitrate.

aga - 2-3-2018 at 08:59

Well done !

It isn't often that an amateur makes a buck out of chemistry.

After a few more runs i suspect you'll get the synthesis off to a fine art.