Are the silver ends on ribbon connecting cables silver?

I decided to chemically test the ends of a ribbon I got out of a printer. Here are the results:



You can see the hydrochloric acid reacting strongly with the metal.



And here you can clearly see the copper metal revealed. The copper is plated, possibly with silver (likely something else), but because the acid removed it so quickly it would be very, very thin (no realistic amount would be possible for silver recovery).

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I had this same question myself and wanted to share my results.

thread necromancy! Cool!

Originally Posted by BRASSCATCHER

Hydrocloric acid does not dissolve silver, the plating is most likely tin and not silver. There is only one acid that puts silver into solution but you have to read about that on another forum

I guess maybe that'll put it back to rest eh ; )

R.I.P.

Originally Posted by BRASSCATCHER

Hydrocloric acid does not dissolve silver, the plating is most likely tin and not silver. There is only one acid that puts silver into solution but you have to read about that on another forum

You are correct, hydrochloric acid does not dissolve silver, nitric acid will. However, if the silver is thin plate (or an alloy) it can reveal the metal beneath it as the other metal dissolves. That's why we use hydrochloric to test silver.

A solid chunk of pure silver won't react.