Re: Silver solutions (safe disposal)

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From:"J. A. Kiernan" <jkiernan@julian.uwo.ca>
To:"Marshall, Sharon," <marshall@anat.uct.ac.za>
Reply-To:
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On Thu, 10 Feb 2000, Marshall, Sharon, wrote:

> other netters discard silver,ammonia and sodium hydroxide solutions 
> e.g. in Gordon and Sweet stain.

 The explosive danger is from evaporation of a neglected ammoniacal
 silver solution. This can generate "fulminating silver," which is
 probably a mixture of AgN3 and AgNH2 (silver nitride and amide).
 Acidification removes all this danger, and if you use hydrochloric
 acid, all the silver ends up as harmless, insoluble silver chloride.
 Consult any big textbook of inorganic chemistry to check up on this,
 and to get more ideas.

 John A. Kiernan,
 Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology,
 The University of Western Ontario,
 LONDON,  Canada  N6A 5C1

 




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