Making silver ornaments using Tollens reagent is pretty easy as long as your glassware is clean. Tollens reagent is used to differentiate between ketones (think fingernail polish remover) and aldehydes (think reducing sugars). If an aldehyde is present, the silver complex ions are reduced to metallic silver, and a brilliant silver coating forms on the glassware. It’s the perfect reaction for the holiday season, and you can use it to silver any clean glassware that you’d like! #chemistry #chemtea

silver mirror experiment Demonstrating the Tollens' test a solution of silver nitrate which can react with aldehydes or reducing sugars to form silver. The silver deposit forms a mirror-like coating on the inside of the reaction vessel. | ChemClub