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Holiday Science: Polish your silver the easy Mr. Wizard way
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When I was a kid, I loved Mr. Wizard. Seriously. I was a nerd and watched reruns of the show every day, I bought all the Mr. Wizard science experiment books, I did all the Mr. Wizard science "magic tricks" for my grandmother after school. But my favorite experiment of all was a scrub-free way to polish silver. I made my grandmother dig out all her hand me down silver so I could clean it all using the Mr. Wizard science experiment.
Now, as an adult, I have all my grandmother's silver, and before the holidays, I clean it the same way. Want to try it? I promise it won't hurt your silver- it is actually better for it than polish!
Here's what you need:
tarnished silver or silverplate objects
aluminum foil
tap water
baking soda
a big iron or stainless steel pot (but absolutely do NOT use an aluminum pot)
stainless steel tongs
stove
Here's what to do:
1. Make sure your silver pieces are clean- gunk or grease on them can interfere with the chemical reactions that happen in this experiment.
2. Line the inside of your pot with the aluminum foil.
3. Fill the pot with enough water to cover your largest silver piece.
4. Add 2 tablespoons of baking soda to the water and stir. Put the pot on the stove and bring the whole thing to a boil.
5. When the water is boiling, place one of your silver pieces into the water so it is completely covered by water AND is touching the aluminum foil. Leave it in for a few minutes.
6. After a few minutes, remove the silver piece with the tongs and rinse it off in clean water. You should see that the tarnish has started disappearing. You may need to put it back into the solution for a few minutes and then rub it gently with a clean towel afterwards to get all the tarnish off.
7. Repeat with other silver, replacing the aluminum every so often if it starts to crack or crumble.
So what is going on here? First, the reason the silver is tarnished in the first place is due to a chemical reaction: sulfur atoms combine with silver atoms to create a coating of silver sulfide, or tarnish. When you place the tarnished silver on the aluminum foil in the baking soda water, you are actually reversing the chemical reaction that changed the surface of the piece from silver to silver sulfide. The sulfur atoms are released from the silver atoms and move to the surface of the aluminum foil. The baking soda makes the reaction possible and the hot water speeds up the process. The silver piece must be actually touching the aluminum foil because the reaction actually causes a small electric current to flow between them. In fact, reactions like this are used to make electricity in batteries.
Want to read more about the science? Here are a few websites explaining what happens.
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/TARNISH.html
http://www.fofweb.com/Onfiles/SEOF/Science_Experiments/5-5.pdf
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