# Silver in nitric acid



## Anonymous (Jan 2, 2009)

I disolved some contacts which I thought were mostly silver appox. 2 oz.
in diluted nitric lab grade, the contacts did disappear but i have some clear crystals in the bottom of my container. any idea what these crystals are? the acid is a clear shiney blue , I got a little copper in it by mistake . with the copper in it can I still use salt to drop it out or should I cement it out with copper ?


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## Noxx (Jan 2, 2009)

Yes, you can still use table salt (NaCl) to precipitate silver as Silver Chloride.
You should wash your AgCl with water to remove any copper traces left.


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## Harold_V (Jan 2, 2009)

lefty741 said:


> any idea what these crystals are?


If your solution was concentrated, the crystals are silver nitrate. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro (Jan 2, 2009)

Harold is right. When dissolving silver, one of the reasons for diluting the nitric 50/50 is to prevent crystals from forming. If you don't dilute and, especially if you consume all the nitric, the solution will become saturated and the silver nitrate crystals will form when the solution cools off.


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