Australia's Science Forum

That's fantastic, thank you

Please do a search for Tollens reagent on this site. There are two very good outlines for this prac. One by Jazz and another by Labbie. Step by step instructions with chemicals and procedure. I don't know how to link up your request with the information provided by these two.

Iv'e tried to do a search and the only thing that came up was how to dispose it. I'll try again

Try searching for 'silver mirror'

The "silver mirror" will bring up Jazz's explanation and Re: Tollens reagent should bring up another by NTrivedi. Sorry, it wasn't Labbie's post, it was the post underneath that one.
Have just tried to follow my own directions and found that once you get the search page for Re:Tollens reagent for some reason you need to click onto Labbies post which then opens up to show the NTrevidi post. Where is that emoticon for tearing ones hair out in frustration. Has anyone else come up against this? Can anyone do a cut and paste to put them in the one spot? Please.

Hi all,

Just wanted to know if doing the silver mirror experiment was a good idea with year 7s and year 9s? if so, what is the best best recipe?

Thanks in advance,

Hi Purple, RiskAssess labels Tollens' reagent as an 11-12 only chemical, due to it being highly corrosive to skin and eyes, not to mention the potential for explosive byproducts. I would not let year 7 or 9 run this experiment, we've only ever done it with year 11.

As for a recipe, I've tried a few but usually have trouble getting it to work. Making Tollens' is finicky and requires good quality distilled water. The recipes on this forum mentioned above are a good place to start though.

I'd be more worried about younger kids getting the Silver Nitrate all over the place and staining themselves, their clothes and benchtops! (Year 12s are bad enough!)
Other than being impressive as a demonstration - As a Chemist, I don't believe the concept/theory of the reaction is relevant to any year levels below year 11.

Milo wrote: ↑23 Sep 2019, 09:52 Hi Purple, RiskAssess labels Tollens' reagent as an 11-12 only chemical, due to it being highly corrosive to skin and eyes, not to mention the potential for explosive byproducts. I would not let year 7 or 9 run this experiment, we've only ever done it with year 11.

As for a recipe, I've tried a few but usually have trouble getting it to work. Making Tollens' is finicky and requires good quality distilled water. The recipes on this forum mentioned above are a good place to start though.

You also need to use perfectly clean or brand new glassware to get the mirror to 'stick'