Never polish your tarnished silver-plated silverware again! Instead, set up a ‘silverware carwash’ where you earn a nickel for every piece you clean. (Just don’t let grandma in on your little secret!)
We’ll be using chemistry and electricity together (electrochemistry) to make a battery that reverses the chemical reaction that puts tarnish on grandma’s good silver. It’s safe, simple, and just needs a grown-up to help with the stove.
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Here’s what you need:
- stove (with adult help)
- skillet
- aluminum foil
- water
- baking soda
- salt
- real silverware (not stainless)
Download Student Worksheet & Exercises
You can safely dip it into a self-polishing solution:
- In a saucepan lined with aluminum foil, heat a solution of 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt.
- When your solution bubbles, place the tarnished silverware directly on the foil. (Try a piece that’s really tarnished to see the cleaning effects the best.)
What’s happening? This is a very simple battery, believe it or not! The foil is the negative charge, the silverware is the positive, and the water-salt-baking-soda solution is the electrolyte.
Your silver turns black because of the presence of sulfur in food. Here’s how the cleaning works: The tarnished fork (silver sulfide) combines with some of the chemicals in the water solution to break apart into sulfur (which gets deposited on the foil) and silver (which goes back onto the fork). Using electricity, you’ve just relocated the tarnish from the fork to the foil. Just rinse clean and wipe dry.
Toss the foil in the trash (or recycling) when you’re done, and the liquids go down the drain.
Exercises
- Where is the electrolyte in this experiment?
- Where does the black stuff that was originally on the silverware go?
- Where’s the electricity in this experiment?
- Where would you place your DMM probes to measure the generated voltage?
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it’s impressive how well this cleans the silverware. I’ll have to remember this in the future, it could be very useful.
Sorry about that! I’ve replaced this video several times, and the audio keeps getting stripped off. I’ve updated it again – please let me know if you still have trouble!
Just like almost all other comments, I have no sound:(
Well that saved me a ton of time, it didn’t get every stain out but they are noticeably cleaner
There’s not an easy way to know which way the ions will flow (and which ions you have) without a little more knowledge of chemistry. For now, I can tell you which is which for an experiment. When you get a little further along, you’ll be able to tell for yourself! 🙂
Try turning up both speakers and see if that works…??
We did the experiment with the written lesson – how do we know that the silver is positive and the foil is negative? In the lesson it just states this. How could we determine that the silverware is positive?
Thanks!
We don’t have any sound either. Other videos work, both from this site and Youtube. Help!
Make sure BOTH speakers are turned up. What happens if you try a different device?
I don’t have any audio on this video… could you help please? (I have tried everything!)
Did you turn up both the speakers? What happens when you try a different computer?
No sound for us either, but we will try experiment tomorrow anyway! 🙂
What happens if you try a different computer?
I’m not getting any sound on this video. My volume is up and other videos work.
I have sound over here… what happens if you try a different computer – does that work?
This is good, but why is there no sound? I turned the speakers up AND down!!! What is going on!?!?!?!!!???
Try turning up BOTH speakers…
What happens if you try a different computer?
Still no sound…
You’re right – the sound didn’t come through. I’ll re-upload this today. Sorry about that!
I am not getting any sound either. so I don’t think its fixed.
Gold does not tarnish. It can appear tarnished due to the presence of other metals used in the making the gold alloy for the jewelry. What looks like tarnish is actually dirt, oils, or residue from lotion, probably transferred from the hands. Soaking in dish soap and then gently rubbing with a Q-tip, then rinsing and drying should clean up any gold items you have.
Does this experiment work with gold? My sisters and I would like to know.
Thank you!
Be careful what you shine. DO NOT use silver coins it will decrease the value.
Benjamin
that is really cool! How many times a week do you post a new video? I am running out of videos to watch lol… maybe they are hiding from me…
Yep! Cool, isn’t it?
so it cleans it?
this was so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The way the videos play on your computer depends on the speed of your internet connection. Here’s a trick you can use: hit PLAY on a video, then hit PAUSE. Wait for it to load completely, then hit PLAY again. Does that fix it?
Some of the videos in this unit are not downloading and hence not playing contineuously.
Yes, as long as they are real silver, and the tarnish is the black stuff like in the video. Try it on a small part of the piece first, just in case. 🙂
That is awesome! So obviously it would work on earrings and necklaces too?… 🙂
Thank you!
Oops! Looks like a problem when we uploaded the video. I’ve fixed it, so try again?
I am not getting any sound for this video. Can you help me out?