silver+nitrate

Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula AgNO3. This compound is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called //lunar caustic// because silver was called //luna// by the ancient alchemists, because they believed that silver was associated with the moon

Discovery

Albertus Magnus, in the 13th century, documented the ability of nitric acid to separate gold and silver by dissolving the silver.[3] Magnus noted that the resulting solution of silver nitrate could blacken skin. Its common name at the time was nitric acid silver.

Synthesis
Silver nitrate can be prepared by reacting silver, such as a silver bullion or silver foil, with nitric acid, resulting in silver nitrate, water, and oxides of nitrogen.

3 Ag + 4 HNO3 → 3 AgNO3 + 2 H2O + NO 3 Ag + 6 HNO3 → 3 AgNO3 + 3 H2O + 3 NO2 etc

This is performed under a fume hood because of toxic nitrogen oxide(s) evolved during the reaction.

Reactions
A typical reaction with silver nitrate is to suspend a rod of [|copper] in a solution of silver nitrate and leave it for a few hours. The silver nitrate reacts with copper to form hairlike crystals of silver metal and a blue solution of copper nitrate: 2 AgNO3 + Cu → Cu(NO3)2 + 2 Ag Silver nitrate also decomposes when heated: 2 AgNO3 → 2 Ag + O2 + 2 NO2 Most metal nitrates thermally decompose to the respective oxides, but silver oxide decomposes at a lower temperature than silver nitrate, so the decomposition of silver nitrate yields elemental silver instead.