Remove silver tarnish?

Question

When i was younger I saw an experiment on Mr wizards world(My idol, recently passed) where he took aluminum foil, placed it in a pot of I think it was sodium bicarbonate dissolved in hot water on a stove. He used a tarnished spoon and touched it to the Al foil and the tarnish dissappeared. Ithink this is how it went but Im not sure. It has been many years. Does anyone know or remember???

Answer 1

Tarnish Removal from Silver

Materials:

-a tarnished piece of silver
-a pan or dish large enough to completely immerse the silver in
-aluminum foil to cover the bottom of the pan (*Note, these two materials can be combined by using a disposable aluminum pan)
-enough water to fill the pan
a kettle to heat the water (and oven mitts if you plan to move the pan)
-baking soda, ~ 1 cup (depends on the amount of tarnished silver you have)
Procedure:

Line the bottom of the pan with aluminum foil (or use your aluminum pan).

Set the silver object on top of the aluminum foil, making sure the silver touches the aluminum.

Heat the water to boiling, and pour it in the pan (*be careful not to burn yourself), completely covering the silver.

Add baking soda (as needed); a good rule of thumb is ¼ cup per 1 liter.(Note, the mixture will froth a bit and may spill over; so you may want to put the pan in a sink – use oven mitts).


The tarnish should begin to disappear quickly.You may need to let it sit, reheat the water, and/or add more baking soda if the silver is badly tarnished

Answer 2

Foil and baking soda has been used as silver polish for a long time.

A good way to clean silver is to put strips of foil in a pan/bowl and place the silver on it. Cover with boiling water ant add about 3 tablespoons of baking soda. Soak for about 10 minutes then rinse and dry.

You can also buy silver polishing cloths at jewelry shops.

Here are the reactions:

3Ag2S + 2Al --> 6Ag + 2Al+3 + 3S- 2: This is the silver sulfide reacting with the Aluminum.

3Ag2S + 2Al + 3H2O --> 6Ag +Al2O3 + 3H2S: this is how the water affects the mix.

NaHCO3 + H2O --> H2CO3 + Na+ + OH-: this the baking soda reacting with the water to make a basic solution. What this does is softens, so to speak, the hard oxide layer so it can react with the Al more easily.