Making my own Silver Nitrate

Robert Ley · Friday at 10:41 AM

As the title says, I'm interested in making my own silver nitrate. I have 3.5 oz of pure silver in 1/2 oz coins and a bottle of 70% Nitric Acid on the way.

Has anyone experience in making silver nitrate. I watched several YouTube videos on the process and I think that I have what I need to do the job.

Your thoughts on the process would be appreciated.

glbeas · Friday at 10:53 AM

All I can say is be very careful with that nitric acid. Any spills can have drastic consequences. Do you have experience handling hazardous chemicals?

mshchem · Friday at 10:59 AM

You just dissolve (digest) the silver in pure nitric acid. The trick is drying (removing) all the residual nitric acid. I think commercially they use vacuum ovens.
Fumes are extremely dangerous, I used a fume hood. Start small until you have a feel for it. I used a rolling mill to flatten the silver round, increasing the surface area, otherwise takes a long time

mshchem · Friday at 11:03 AM

Makes beautiful crystals

Robert Ley · Friday at 11:20 AM

I am aware of the fumes and plan to do the job in my garage or just outside but not inside as I don't have a fume hood. I have a Corning hot plate and stirrer and glass beakers. I have used sulfuric and glacial acetic before, is nitric different and are there any things that I should be aware of with Nitric acid?
In one video they used acetone to neutralize the nitric acid. Is there another way to dry the crystals?

Donald Qualls · Friday at 11:43 AM

One major difference with nitric is that it's a strong oxidizer -- it used to be used for that purpose in rocket engines! If you spill it on a cotton shirt or other cellulose material a small amount of the material will nitrate (this once led to "exploding collars" when San Francisco laundries, in post-gold rush days, would whiten the material with nitric acid, though it appears to have required multiple laundry cycles to become hazardous).

The 70% acid you've ordered should be somewhat safer to deal with than concentrated acid, but still requires great respect.

Robert Ley · Friday at 11:56 AM

Donald Qualls said:
One major difference with nitric is that it's a strong oxidizer -- it used to be used for that purpose in rocket engines! If you spill it on a cotton shirt or other cellulose material a small amount of the material will nitrate (this once led to "exploding collars" when San Francisco laundries, in post-gold rush days, would whiten the material with nitric acid, though it appears to have required multiple laundry cycles to become hazardous).

The 70% acid you've ordered should be somewhat safer to deal with than concentrated acid, but still requires great respect.

Donald, Thanks for this information and I will be very careful handling this acid.
Should I get special gloves to handle this stuff, I assume nitrile gloves will not work.

Donald Qualls · Friday at 12:34 PM

Rocket servicers, back in the 1940s-1950s, used to wear very heavy latex gloves, aprons, jackets, and boots, as well as full-hood face protection. They were, however, handling one of the varieties of "fuming" nitric acid, which contained dissolve nitrogen dioxide (increased the oxidation capacity with little increase in volume and made the acid even more reactive, so it would auto-ignite on contact with the fuel component). Their (primitive, by today's standards) protective gear was replaced frequently.

The main point is that examining gloves are too fragile for safety; the ones I wear daily at work get holes at the slightest insult. Heavy lineman-style rubber gloves with protective sleeves that prevent spills from getting inside the glove would be preferred. Full-face protection with side shields (i.e. full sealed mask, by preference).

For small quantities (a couple hundred milliliters at a time, at most) of 70% acid you should be okay with heavy rubber gloves and adequate face/eye protection -- and a fast-starting shower nearby in case of a significant spill.

koraks · Friday at 12:57 PM

Robert Ley said:
plan to do the job in my garage or just outside

Err...NOT IN THE GARAGE!!!
Outside, maybe, OK.

You'll need to heat the stuff up and keep it hot, otherwise it's going to take ages.

Seriously though - just buy your silver nitrate. It's not worth the hassle.

retina_restoration · Friday at 1:51 PM

koraks said:
Seriously though - just buy your silver nitrate. It's not worth the hassle.

100% in agreement there.

argent_negre · Friday at 5:00 PM

retina_restoration said:
100% in agreement there.

I strongly agree.

Robert Ley · Saturday at 7:03 PM

koraks said:
Err...NOT IN THE GARAGE!!!
Outside, maybe, OK.

You'll need to heat the stuff up and keep it hot, otherwise it's going to take ages.

Seriously though - just buy your silver nitrate. It's not worth the hassle.

Yes, but what's the fun in that

Robert Ley · Saturday at 7:21 PM

As I said, I have a Corning hot plate and I'm wondering if it will be hot enough. I also have a propane camping stove that I could use.
I have on order and will arrive on Monday, a good pair of appropriate gloves, a chem resistant apron and a good 3M respirator and googles.
If anyone can think of anything else please let me know.

Chuck1 · Saturday at 7:52 PM

If you're heating nitric acid
A full face respirator is a good idea

mshchem · Saturday at 7:54 PM

You need to be able to remove the reaction vessel (beaker) from the hot plate with tongs or silicone hot mitts. Problem with a big ol hot plate is thermal mass. No quick way to quench the reaction without removing the beaker from the plate.

Not sure about mixing acetone with nitric acid, sounds extremely dangerous to me.

Small batch to start. Coin shops have pure silver as small as 1/10 oz Troy (3.1g)

One way would be to put the beaker (cover with a watch glass) in a well ventilated spot and come back in a week.

mshchem · Saturday at 7:56 PM

Donald Qualls said:
One major difference with nitric is that it's a strong oxidizer -- it used to be used for that purpose in rocket engines! If you spill it on a cotton shirt or other cellulose material a small amount of the material will nitrate (this once led to "exploding collars" when San Francisco laundries, in post-gold rush days, would whiten the material with nitric acid, though it appears to have required multiple laundry cycles to become hazardous).

The 70% acid you've ordered should be somewhat safer to deal with than concentrated acid, but still requires great respect.

70% nitric acid is Concentrated nitric acid. This is the standard strength

mshchem · Saturday at 8:16 PM

Inhaling the fumes will destroy your lungs. That's bad!

I worked in a lab for over a decade working with conc acids, safety is first priority.

Robert Ley · Saturday at 8:18 PM

mshchem said:
You need to be able to remove the reaction vessel (beaker) from the hot plate with tongs or silicone hot mitts. Problem with a big ol hot plate is thermal mass. No quick way to quench the reaction without removing the beaker from the plate.

Not sure about mixing acetone with nitric acid, sounds extremely dangerous to me.

Small batch to start. Coin shops have pure silver as small as 1/10 oz Troy (3.1g)

One way would be to put the beaker (cover with a watch glass) in a well ventilated spot and come back in a week.

The coins I have are 1/2 troy oz, about the size of a US quarter and a little thicker. I have an idea how I might be able to cut it up into smaller pieces to increase the the surface area. I have tongs and beakers from 50ml-2000ml. I'm leaning on doing this outside and will take precautions. Your idea of putting it in a beaker and letting it sit would work well in my garage in the summer it would be warm enough I'm sure.

Robert Ley · Saturday at 8:24 PM

mshchem said:
Inhaling the fumes will destroy your lungs. That's bad!

I worked in a lab for over a decade working with conc acids, safety is first priority.

Yep, aware of the danger of the fumes. I've got a 3M cartridge respirator on the way and will be doing it outside with plenty of air circulation.
If I'm going to destroy my lungs, I'd prefer it be a good sativa.

glbeas · Saturday at 9:37 PM

It may be more effective to hammer the silver into thinner sheets to increase the surface area. Once flattened bend some zigzags into the sheet so it doesn't lay flat in the beaker.

BJ68 · 2025-07-14T03:59:32-0400

2018 I tried it according to this patent: https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/65897df1e37781736f29/EP0568259A1.pdf

Has the advantages, that there are no nitrogen oxides produced (which are wasted) and you can go down with the concentration of the nitric acid. They use 50% hydrogen peroxide, but it should work with lower concentrations, too (that I have not tested).

Here my work (in German) with pictures: https://illumina-chemie.org/viewtopic.php?p=71093#p71093

bj68

Agulliver · 2025-07-14T04:26:13-0400

As someone who works daily in a well equipped laboratory with a fume hood....even I do not bother to make silver nitrate myself. It's not that I couldn't, but it would be on the more risky end of things that I do and it's simply not necessary. I buy 25g of AgNO3 per year.

I would advise not prepping this yourself unless you have access to a lab with a fume hood.

PGum · 2025-07-14T22:40:18-0400

Beware that 3M cartridges will not absorb the nitrogen dioxide fumes emitted during the reaction, even if they mention absorption of acid gases! You will be in harms way!

mshchem · 2025-07-14T22:46:43-0400

One thing about digital photography, much less exciting, from an exposure to deadly fumes standpoint

mshchem · 2025-07-14T22:47:55-0400

Google Image Result for https://external-preview.redd.it/0FKhXGAfBuXMMr2u62Hf5XV61TPxzQOHxlvAFlYVxJA.jpg?auto=webp&s=1062dfe2b5f11d58f6a2ec3eced2063140ea6c26

Making my own Silver Nitrate

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