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FLOORING What to do if you Have Silver Nitrate on Your CarpetHelp, my wife is really angry at me. I should have been resilvering my mirrors in the garage, but no, I had to move my “junk” as my wife so lovingly calls my “stuff” into the living room, and watch the football game. The last words I remember saying were “yes dear, I will be careful” and as luck would have it, I spilled some of the diluted solution on the carpet and we now have according to my wife quite a lot and more than a few brown spots on the carpet. Is there anything that will neutralize the spots, save my life or is the carpet a total loss and I will be visiting a carpet store this weekend?Silver nitrate for all of you non chemistry folks is what they call an inorganic compound that is very versatile and has a variety of uses, such as silver plating, used for photography, eye infections and is used medically. Silver nitrate was discovered in the 13th century by Albertus Magnus. Carl, there is no other way to say this except the area where you have spilled the silver nitrate is a total write off. Nitric acid will dissolve the silver and turn it back into your silver nitrate solution, however, your carpet be also be dissolved, down to the backing. Do not attempt to use any ammonia-based solutions for removal as you can create a potentially hazardous reaction. If you have extra carpet, a good carpet repair craftsman can certainly replace that section of damaged carpet. I wish you well and it will be more cost effective for you to purchase a TV for the garage to prevent future household issues. |