Conventional mirrors can be created not only industrially, they can be made at home, with the necessary chemicals. Here are step-by-step instructions on how to create a mirror.
It is necessary
glass, pumice powder, gauze, household cleaners, ammonia solution, a few drops of silver nitrate, 4 g of sodium hydroxide prepared in advance,
Instructions
Step 1
Choose an even piece of glass, put it horizontally on the table. In order not to damage the mirror during operation, you can put something soft under it.
Step 2
Thoroughly clean and degrease the glass surface, you can use household glass cleaners.
Step 3
Moisten gauze in a suspension of fine pumice powder, wipe the glass with it, then rinse with distilled water.
Wipe the glass with a wet sponge, then with gauze soaked in stannous chloride (15%) two to three times.
Quickly pour a mixture of silvering solutions onto the glass. The glass surface should be 8-10 degrees warmer than the mixture.
Step 4
Silvering mixture is made from silver and aldehyde solutions.
To prepare one liter of a silver solution, dissolve 4 g of silver nitrate in 300 ml of distilled water.
Step 5
In 270 ml of the resulting solution, add 25% ammonia solution one drop at a time, stirring vigorously with a glass rod. When the solution becomes clear, add a few drops of silver nitrate, add 4 g of previously prepared sodium hydroxide.
Step 6
Add ammonia solution dropwise to the resulting light coffee solution until the liquid becomes light bluish in appearance. Then add silver nitrate and ammonia solution so that the total volume of used ammonia is 10-12 ml. Add distilled water, bringing the total volume to one liter.
Step 7
To prepare an aldehyde solution, dissolve 100 g of refined sugar in a small volume of distilled water, add 10 ml of sulfuric or nitric acid, boil for 10-15 minutes, add distilled water, bringing the volume to a liter.
Step 8
A mixture for silvering is prepared from 5 ml of aldehyde and 500 ml of silver solution. Silvering should be started when the liquid darkens. The silvering mixture should spread over the entire glass surface.
The glass should darken and then start to brighten. After 5-10 minutes, drive off the liquid from the glass with a chamois cloth, abundantly soaked in distilled water, and pour the silvering mixture again. After another 15 minutes, lift the glass and rinse the mixture with water.
Step 9
For strength, the mirror must be baked in an upright position at a temperature of 100-150 degrees, and then covered with a silver film with a waterproof varnish. When the varnish is dry, cover with a thick layer of paint.
Silver streaks on the front side can be removed with a swab with a weak solution of hydrochloric acid.
The mirror is ready!
