[nj_bartel]

I've been told that a brief washing of glass with stannic chloride is a good prep for the glass to hold silver following a tollen's test.  The stannic chloride apparently reacts with the glass to leave a miniscule coating of tin dioxide.  On wiki, it says tin dioxide is used in the ceramics industry to leave opaque coatings on things.  My question is - if it leaves an opaque coating, wouldn't this hide the silver (mirroring the inside of a bottle)?  Also, how exactly does the tin dioxide enhance adherence of the silver to the walls of the container?

Thanks for your time

[billnotgatez]

In ceramics we sometimes use a tin compound to act as an opacifier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin-glazing

One wonders if you have to be on the inside of the bottle to appreciate the mirror.

[nj_bartel]

That is kind of my worry... A grad student in my group had stannic chloride in a sep funnel and it left chunks of tin oxide all over the bottom.  He hasn't been able to get them off at all yet, still has to try acid bath.

I asked our organometallic professor, and he didn't think it would really do anything beneficial other than thoroughly clean the glass, which could be accomplished just fine with hydroxide solution.

[Quaff]

I've been told that a brief washing of glass with stannic chloride is a good prep for the glass to hold silver following a tollen's test.  The stannic chloride apparently reacts with the glass to leave a miniscule coating of tin dioxide.  On wiki, it says tin dioxide is used in the ceramics industry to leave opaque coatings on things.  My question is - if it leaves an opaque coating, wouldn't this hide the silver (mirroring the inside of a bottle)?  Also, how exactly does the tin dioxide enhance adherence of the silver to the walls of the container?

Thanks for your time

Maybe you'll find this of interest:

http://www.teralab.co.uk/Experiments/Conductive_Glass/Conductive_Glass_Page1.htm