THE CHEMISTRY BEHIND SILVER BOTTLING.

pressable March 26, 2012

Well, I know the month of February went by and it was a great time for all of you out there on Valentine’s Day. The chemistry club, which is part of the American Chemical Society (ACS), hosts an event each year around this time where we make glass bottles look as if they were silver, it’s called silver bottling.

Vice-President of ACS, Yasmine Yousef (on the left) and President of ACS, Helen German.

Every year, the Chemistry Club hosts this event to raise funds for Relay for Life. So if you ran out of ideas for gifts or decorations for your room, this is an event to check out next year. Depending on the size of the bottle you have, we charge from $3-7 per bottle. All the bottles need to be made out of glass and the top can be closed. Some people wait a whole year and bring out the strangest bottles in shapes and color. The Chemistry Club even provides glass bottles in different shapes and colours to the public if they forget one. They can also choose to get a rose and ribbon with it too. The interesting part is you get to do it all by yourself, just follow the instructions step by step.

The Method:

When you come in, you will wash the bottle inside and out. Then, you will go to the next station where you pour some hot hydrochloric acid (HCl) into the bottles. Then you will pour the acid out into a beaker and rinse the bottle with water. Later on, the bottles will be filled with boiling water and let sit for 5-10 minutes (we want the bottle to be as hot as possible so the next chemical can stick evenly to the inside of the bottle). The next step, you will pour the water out into a beaker and go to the next station. Here, the students must wear lab coats and goggles for safety. A little silver nitrate ( AgNO3) solution is added into the bottle and capped. Afterwards, we swirl the bottle constantly back and forth to give it an even coat. Finally, we pour out the excess solution into a beaker and let the bottle air dry. Voila, you have a beautiful shiny silver bottle! If you have a colored bottle, like red or blue, the bottle will look polished.

ACS Club:

I have been part of ACS for 2 years and 1 year as an officer. We host a lot of cool events. Like

All the members of ACS helping in setting-up the event.

the Liquid Nitrogen Ice-Cream Social, Mole Day, Silver Bottling Valentine’s Day, Pi Day and a Christmas Get-Together. Some member even went to F.A.M.E, a conference for the students to interact with professors and present their ideas. The club tries to give students a chance to explore their surroundings through chemistry. We do not have any specific major students to join us; it’s open for all. We encourage all students to join us and be part of our community. We also have other activities on campus and usually meet every week in Olin Physical Sciences building (OPS). We discuss new ideas, like recently we started to help out freshmen students in their chemistry class by tutoring them. Another idea we are working on is going to local schools and demonstrating the magic of chemistry to students.

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