Will it work?

[ritehere]

Just a question.
Will a combination of sodium nitrate and hcl remove (or dissolve) silver from buss bar contacts?
Or maybe sodium nitrate and distilled water mix?

 

[martyn111]

HCl + sodium nitrate will make poor mans AR
The problem you will have is the silver will become silver chloride rather than producing silver nitrate, meaning you will need to convert the AgCl to elemental silver either using dilute sulphuric acid and iron or the sodium hydroxide and sugar method.
Most forum members try to avoid AgCl production because of the extra processes needed to convert it.
Sodium nitrate + distilled water would produce sodium nitrate solution which would be ineffective in dissolving silver.

 

[ritehere]

Thank you for the feedback. It is appreciated

 

[Lino1406]

Nitrate + sulfuric acid will do the job

 

[butcher]

Silver in chloride forms a crust of silver chloride, this crust will passivate the silver (keeping the acid from attacking it).

Silver will also form silver sulfate, so if you try to dissolve your silver in home made nitric acid (HNO3) using a nitrate (NaNO3) and sulfuric acid (H2SO4), you will form silver sulfate, which is not what you would want to deal with.

2NaNO3 + H2SO4 --> 2HNO3 + Na2SO4

Here the nitric acid (HNO3) will need to be separated from the sodium sulfate salts (Na2NO3), so if you wish to use homemade nitric acid on silver you must distill the nitric acid separating it from the sulfate salts.

 

[Lino1406]

1. The lack of e-mailing is a serious drawback
in the forum activity, hope it will soon be remedied
2. Unlike silver chloride, silver sulphate has a significant
solubility in sulfuric acid
3. What is "the rush" to use sodium nitrate?