Silver nitrate sunbathing in the UV lamp.
After long-term use of the silver nitrate bath, the bath's content changes considerably. By immersing plates with poured collodion in the bath, we contaminate it with alcohol and ether, as well as with various particles of debris found on the plates.
In order for the bath to always be "correct", it requires occasional "maintenance".
Alcohol and ether should be removed from it and lost silver should be added. The pH value should be regulated according to the collodion procedure used.
The simplest thing we can do is "sunbathing" the bath for ten hours in the sun in a glass container that does not block UV rays. It would be good if it were a container with a wide opening that allows the alcohol and ether to evaporate from the bath as easily as possible (alcohol and ether have a much lower boiling point, so they evaporate much faster than water).
During this procedure, the bath begins to change color to gray and even milky gray, depending on the amount of pollution. This is a normal reaction where the silver nitrate reacts with the particles in the bath. When the sunning is finished, leave the container to cool and settle. After some time, sediment will form at the bottom, and the silver nitrate bath will become transparent again.
When the process is complete, everything should be well filtered, and if necessary, silver nitrate and acid should be added.
As it is quite dangerous to leave the bath open and unclogged, I looked for an alternative way to clean the bath.
I used a
UV box and small plastic cups.
Since my
UV box is equipped with two fans, it was only necessary to increase the area from which alcohol and ether can evaporate. I put the sn in a lot of 200ml glasses that I filled to half or less, and placed everything in several developing tubs. I put the tubs in a UV lamp. I illuminated for about 11 hours while the fans slowly but surely "extracted" the alcohol and ether vapors from the inside of the UV lamp.
It has been shown that this way it is possible to remove alcohol and ether from the bath completely.
After UV illumination, the bath was filtered through cotton wool, and the amount of silver nitrate and the bath acidity were checked. Finally, everything was stored in the original containers.
