Tarnish
Removal
(Zharina, 2003)
![](http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/tarnish-to-clean-rings.jpg)
What is Tarnish?
- chemical reaction between metal and nonmetal
- results in metal oxide or metal sulfide
- corrosion formed on the surface of metals to preserve the layers below
- formed on metals like silver, copper, brass, etc.
![](http://silvertarnishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Fig23-Bart-Ag-voor-na-reiniging-300x172.jpg)
![](http://www.steelheadnotebook.net/images/brassblade.jpg)
Silver Tarnish
![](http://images-of-elements.com/s/silver-sulfide.jpg)
-
also known as silver sulfide
- occurs when silver metal reacts with hydrogen sulfide in the air or with materials containing sulfur
- black solid
- insoluble in all solvents
![](http://www.amfsupplies.com/images/extra-heavy-duty.jpg)
Physical Removal
- scrub the tarnished metal with an abrasive
- some metal layers underneath also removed
Chemical Removal
- chemical solutions
- electrochemical cleaning
- galvanic cleaning
Galvanic Cleaning of Silver Tarnish
- connect tarnished metal to aluminum sheet
- aluminum acts as the reducing agent
- submerge both in a sodium bicarbonate electrolyte solution
- sulfur transferred from silver to aluminum via electrolyte
- aluminum has larger affinity to sulfur than silver
- produces silver, aluminum sulfide, hydrogen gas, and hydrogen sulfide gas
Optimizing the Reaction
- Heating the electrolyte increases the chances for successful collisions between the particles
- should not be heated to the point where the electrodes melt
- Smaller objects or objects with many creases will react faster due to increase of surface area
- The addition of a catalyst will speed up the reaction process
Effects on Society
-
Tarnish removal is used for vanity purposes rather than practicality
-
Popular use of tarnish removal process is the cleaning of jewellery
- silver plated jewellery can be cleaned without removing the coating
Effects on Industry
![](http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/Education/CanadianSymbols/images/fullsize/center_block_large.jpg)
- tarnish is useful for preserving metals such as statues and copper roofing, so removing tarnish is not really sought out
-
used to preserve stored metals
Effects on Environment & Human Health
-
hydrogen sulfide released from galvanic reaction is poisonous if inhaled at large quantities (also smells bad)
![](http://www.homedepot.ca/wcsstore/HomeDepotCanada/images/catalog/18e99903-3f15-4c00-8f34-df3618200c79_4.jpg)
- many tarnish removers are corrosive to skin and toxic if ingested
- if incorrectly disposed, harmful to environment
- gets into water supply
-
newer tarnish removing products aiming at being non-toxic and safer for environment
Electrochemical Cleaning of Artificially Tarnished Silver
- conducted at School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens
- Silver tarnished with chlorine and sulfur was observed when added to a galvanic cell with aluminum and sodium carbonate
- found that after an hour, small samples of sulfur and chlorine were still present on the silver
Which of these metals do not tarnish?
![](http://galacticconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/gold-nugget.jpg)
In what ways is tarnish useful?
What are two common elements that cause tarnishing?
What does hydrogen sulfide smell like?
![](http://www.lightingservicesinc.net/Portals/235721/images/rotten%20eggs%20emergency%20light%20batteries.jpg)
47 Ag Silver. (2010). Retrieved January 8 from http://images-of-elements.com/silver.php
Zharina, E. (2003). Clean Tarnished Silver Jewellery. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://jewelrymakingjournal.com/clean-tarnished-silver-jewelry/A.M.F. Supplies. (2006). Products. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://www.amfsupplies.com/products.htm
Brian. (2005). Tone down that brass for summer runs!. Retrieved January 6, 2014 from http://steelheadnotebook.net/forum/index.php/topic,542.0.html
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety. (2012). Hydrogen Sulfide. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://www.ccohs.ca/products/databases/samples/cheminfo.html
Canadian Conservation Institute. (2013). Recognizing Metals and their Corrosion Products. Retrieved January 6, 2014 from http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/caringfor-prendresoindes/articles/metals-metaux/index-eng.aspx
Clark, C.(2013). “What is that rotten egg smell?” Emergency Light Batteries. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://www.lightingservicesinc.net/life-safety-blog/?BBPage=1
Cleaning Your Silver. (n.d.) Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://www.darylscience.com/Demos/Silver.html
CUPE. (2011). Hydrogen Sulfide. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://cupe.ca/health-and-safety/Hydrogen_Sulfide
Di Giuseppe, M., Salciccioli, K., Harberer, S., Sanader, M.,& Vavitsas, A.(2012). Nelson Chemistry 12: University Preparation. Ontario Edition. Toronto, ON:Thomson Nelson.
Gagnon, S. (n.d.). The Element Silver. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele047.html
Georgiza, E., Novakovic, J., Vassiliou, P. (2013). Electrochemical Cleaning of Artificially Tarnished Silver. 7223 - 7232. Retrieved from http://www.electrochemsci.org/papers/vol8/80507223.pdf
How to Clean Tarnished Silver. (n.d.) Retrieved January 9, 2014 from http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-clean-tarnished-silver
Lenntech. (2014). Alluminium - Al. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/al.htm
Lide, D. R. (2008). Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 89th Edition.
Murphy, E. (2012). Copper Cleaning. Retrieved January 6, 2014 from http://americanhomestead.blogspot.ca/2012/01/copper-cleaning.html
Parliament Buildings. (2008). Retreived January 8, 2014 from http://www.parl.gc.ca/About/Parliament/Education/CanadianSymbols/centre-e.asp
Silver Tarnish And Removing Tarnish From Silver Jewelry. (2005). Retrieved January 6, 2014 from http://www.newsletter.kaijewels.com/silver-tarnish.htm
Winter, M. (2012). Silver compounds: disilver sulphide. Retrieved January 8, 2014 from http://www.webelements.com/compounds/silver/disilver_sulphide.html
Tarnish Removal
By Cora
Tarnish Removal
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