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how to make a mirror at home using a test tube?

Tollensprobe
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Are you excited to know how to make a mirror at home? then you are in the perfect place at the perfect time. Today askerweb will teach you to make a mirror using a test tube.
We all have a mirror in our home, just think the mirror has been broken by you and someone in your home needs the mirror immediately.
Don’t worry if you are a Science-minded person you can make a mirror using a test tube and some chemicals after reading this article. And this is a very good mirror because here silver will be used as a reflector instead of Mercury.

how to make a mirror
Test tube as Mirror

You can use it for a lifetime or for a certain time. I mean you can use it as a use-and-throw mirror just when you need this. So, let’s know how to make a mirror in-home or how to use a test-tube as a mirror.

This experiment is a part of the famous Tollens test. This trick will be fully understandable to you if you know these “10 Mechanisms for the reaction of Tollens’ reagent“.

Source: youtube.com/chemistry edb

Materials of how to make a mirror at home :

  1. A glass jar,
  2. two test-tubes,
  3. spirit lamp,
  4. water bath,
  5. silver nitrate solution,
  6. ammonium hydroxide solution,
  7. sodium hydroxide solution,
  8. glucose.

Process of making a mirror using test tube:

  1. Take 2gm glucose and water in a test-tube and make the solution.
  2. Take 2 cc silver nitrate solution and 2 drops sodium hydroxide solution and mix them. You will see a blackish Precipitation of silver oxide in the test-tube.
  3. Now add three drops of ammonium hydroxide to that solution, soon the solution becomes transparent. This transparent solution is Tollens’ reagent (ammoniacal silver nitrate).
  4. Now add this Tollen’s reagent to the first test-tube of glucose solution.
  5. Warm it with a test-tube water bath for 15 minutes. Within 20 minutes you will see a glittering coating on the inner surface of the test-tube. Now if you throw away the solution, you can see the test-tube as a mirror.

Explanation of why the test tube reflects:

Now, you may be thinking about how it’s possible. Why does the test tube reflect? How can we use the test tube as a mirror? The explanation is an easy chemical reaction. Glucose solution contains an aldehyde atom which is oxidized by the ammonia-containing silver nitrate solution and precipitation of silver remains. And this precipitation is the reflector here.

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