Sciencemadness Discussion Board

AgNO3 stains on countertop

prometheus1970 - 3-2-2011 at 10:03

I got a few grains of Agno3 powder on the countertop the other day. There was some sitting on the counter so I did not see them there. Soon thereafter I used a wet cloth to wipe off the counter, now there is a nice, ugly brown stain on the countertop that does not want to come up. My wife is not happy with me, needless to say. I read that sodium thiosulfate is good for removing AgNO3 stains from fabric. Is there anything (preferably more readily available) that will clean off my kitchen counter?:(

[Edited on 2-3-2011 by prometheus1970]

gnitseretni - 3-2-2011 at 11:53

Try ammonia.

http://www.ehow.com/how_6173895_remove-silver-nitrate-stains...

Magpie - 3-2-2011 at 12:47

I had the exact same thing happen to me. Fortunately the Formica coutertop is very old and I've been promising a new one so she isn't too pissed. I rubbed a little dilute HCl into the stain which helped some.

3-fool proof methods

The WiZard is In - 3-2-2011 at 13:30

A- Sandpaper
B- Cyanide
C- Google it.

One would think someone would have patented a method!

Formatik - 4-2-2011 at 12:04

If these stains are anything like the ones I've had in cement, then they are permanent. Not even filing helped. I've tried a variety of things against older stains and failed completely as noted here: http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=10781 Put a flower vase over it or something.

hodges - 9-3-2011 at 17:26

I've been able to remove silver stains from my countertop with dilute HNO3. However, unfortunately that did not work for gold stains.

Hodges

Wizzard - 10-3-2011 at 07:52

@hodges- Sticky fingers are good at removing anything gold from unmonitored countertops :P

unionised - 10-3-2011 at 13:16

Quote: Originally posted by Wizzard  
@hodges- Sticky fingers are good at removing anything gold from unmonitored countertops :P

Didn't work on mine, but a coat of paint means I don't care about the purple splodge caused by the gold any more.

prometheus1970 - 27-5-2011 at 06:48

I found that coarse rock polishing grit along with a few drops of 40% Peroxide solution (H2O2) with lots of elbow grease and scrubbing got the stains up. At first I was worried about scratching the countertop, but the grit actually left it smoother than before where it was used.

quicksilver - 27-5-2011 at 14:06

Quote: Originally posted by hodges  
I've been able to remove silver stains from my countertop with dilute HNO3. However, unfortunately that did not work for gold stains.

Hodges


That's whatcha' get for playing in the kitchen :P You SHOULD get results with abrasives; the trick is to bring back the area to a shine. A trick I've seen often is to use your abrasive of choice & use furniture polish to fill the microscopic abraded area. You could even try buffing compound if you have a serious need to make it look original (wife gets seriously out-of-joint, etc). It all depend o the material. Formica is pretty much toast if you get a HNO3 droplet spill.