image by Flickr/Cyberchemist
The Tollen’s Reagent is used to determine whether a solution contains an aldehyde or a ketone.
Dilute sodium hydroxide is added to aqueous silver nitrate, this gives silver oxide, sodium nitrate and water.
2 AgNO3 (aq) + 2 NaOH (aq) → Ag2O (s) + 2 NaNO3 (aq) + H2O (l)
Then, aqueous ammonia is added to the solution until it goes clear. This is due to the now silver ions existing as [Ag(NH3)2]+ complexes.
Ag2O (s) + 4 NH3 (aq) + 2 NaNO3 (aq) + H2O (l) → 2 Ag(NH3)2NO3(aq) + 2 NaOH (aq)
The silver precipitates out onto the inside of the container, giving the notable silver mirror as seen above.
Anyone remember this from o-chem?
OMG TOLLEN’S REAGENT! I remember using this stuff as a sophomore
Is it weird I actually understand all of this?
org chem days :’D
it’s funny how i’ve used this in high school but we weren’t allowed to use it in college when we actually needed to...
“sadly, we can’t do this, Silver Nitrate is too expensive” ¬¬’ #thirdworlduniversityproblems
I’ve done this before, I miss that moment :’D