Here is a tarnish tip from
@sparkandtwig - “To remove tarnish from sterling silver, all you need is an oven-safe dish, aluminum foil, baking soda, salt and boiling water. How does it work? After reading dozens of pages on many reputable science sites, I found this excerpt below to be the clearest explanation. It has been attributed to Dr Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, a professor of chemistry at University of Wisconsin-Madison: *** When silver tarnishes, it combines with sulfur and forms silver sulfide. Silver sulfide is black. When a thin coating of silver sulfide forms on the surface of silver, it darkens the silver. The silver can be returned to its former luster by removing the silver sulfide coating from the surface. […] The tarnish-removal method used in this experiment uses a chemical reaction to convert the silver sulfide back into silver. This does not remove any of the silver. Many metals in addition to silver form compounds with sulfur. Some of them have a greater affinity for sulfur than silver does. Aluminum is such a metal. In this experiment, the silver sulfide reacts with aluminum. In the reaction, sulfur atoms are transferred from silver to aluminum, freeing the silver metal and forming aluminum sulfide. The reaction between silver sulfide and aluminum takes place when the two are in contact while they are immersed in a baking soda solution. The reaction is faster when the solution is warm. The solution carries the sulfur from the silver to the aluminum. The aluminum sulfide may adhere to the aluminum foil, or it may form tiny, pale yellow flakes in the bottom of the pan. The silver and aluminum must be in contact with each other, because a small electric current flows between them during the reaction. This type of reaction, which involves an electric current, is called an electrochemical reaction.” Thank you for all this info!!! Really interesting to hear the science!
