61% nitric acid

[g_axelsson]

The text on wikipedia gives an incorrect picture... that an aqueous solution of silver nitrate would decompose didn't agree with my experience. That would make it almost impossible to dry silver nitrate crystals with heat and it would have presented problems with dissolving silver in nitric acid while heating the solution in the first place.

A bit of googling gave me the answer... (red text added for clarity) http://www.nist.gov/data/PDFfiles/jpcrd11.pdf

Qualitatively, decomposition is negligible in the solid state, but becomes appreciable 30-40° C above the melting point.

Silver nitrate melts at 209.7 °C (409.5 °F; 482.8 K) so it starts to decompose around 250° C and totally decompose at 440° C. I wouldn't call it an aqueous solution at those temperatures.

So, unless the solution is heated until dryness and well beyond there shouldn't be any noticeable amounts of silver precipitating.

Interesting reaction though... 8)

Göran

 

[Geo]

Wiki is flawed that way. If it says "when heated", it could mean "on the surface of the sun". Not really giving the temperature of decomposition really hurts the article. If I were expecting elemental metal from metal salts, the first thing to cross my mind would be calcining. That's the way I took it but that just shows my inexperience.

Perhaps since you caught that, maybe you can report it as flawed so that they can fix it.

 

[g_axelsson]

Better up, it's a wiki and I'm going to fix it myself. 8)

Göran