Zinc Nitrate in the making of whiter Mirrors

[Ismael Alvarado]

some Spray on chrome systems use zinc nitrate(MSDS) in their formula, I would guess its to make the front surface mirrors they are calling chrome a whiter toner?

is this even possible?

[Patrick Mackle]

My guess is that it makes the silver layer harder and maybe deposit a little heavier. Could be they add the zinc to cut the silver content and stretch their dollars. But that's just a guess.
Pat

[Ismael Alvarado]

My guess is that it makes the silver layer harder and maybe deposit a little heavier. Could be they add the zinc to cut the silver content and stretch their dollars. But that's just a guess.
Pat

Could a Single Displacement Reaction be happening? is there a way to deposit zinc in a silver like manner?

[erik winkler]

There must be, like aluminium, gold silver and probably any other metal. But I do not know how.
And i think for your quest it is not interesting, since the metall is not noble enough and would deteriate to quickly before you would be able to protect it.
Maybe that is why aluminium is so popular nowadays, the surface oxidation layer is closing the aluminium against further oxidation. So the metal on the glass side will stay brilliant for ever (if not scrathed).
I would just think the Zink is too unnoble and since you already had problems with clearcoating the more noble silver....

I do not know...

[Ismael Alvarado]

There must be, like aluminium, gold silver and probably any other metal. But I do not know how.
And i think for your quest it is not interesting, since the metall is not noble enough and would deteriate to quickly before you would be able to protect it.
Maybe that is why aluminium is so popular nowadays, the surface oxidation layer is closing the aluminium against further oxidation. So the metal on the glass side will stay brilliant for ever (if not scrathed).
I would just think the Zink is too unnoble and since you already had problems with clearcoating the more noble silver....

I do not know...

its aluminum also capable of being electroless plated?...

I know many metals can be electroless palted but can they be sprayed? the nice people at angel gilding are not yet able to spray copper or gold in their electroless forumulas..maybe in the future

[mgking]

From the chemist: The chemical properties of zinc make it very unlikely that it will be displaced from solution to form elemental zinc which would be shiny if produced at the right rate. The same is true of aluminum which is why both of these metals are used to protect other metals like iron. Adding zinc salts (like the nitrate) to mirroring solutions is commonly used to control how the mirroring process works including the speed at which the metal particles deposit but no metallic zinc is involved.

Silver metal is actually very pale yellow and to make it look like chrome you have to tint the clearcoat with a blue or violet tint. This is not necessary when doing second surface mirroring such as eglomise.