My chemical romance.

I had to attend my chemistry practical class this morning and my usual groggy routine of dumping chemicals around and mixing them was disturbed by my teacher announcing that we would be dealing with alcohols and suchlike.

Hell to the yeahh.

I immediately gravitated towards the aldehydes section of the lab work. Yes, the silver mirror test.

Explanation: When you mix an aldehyde with Tollens' reagent, an ammoniacal silver nitrate usually, the aldehyde is oxidized into carboxylate ions while the reagent is reduced to elemental silver and aqueous ammonia.

The silver precipitates on the surface of the vessel (or the test tube) and this causes a very distinctive "silver mirror". Production of the silver mirror seems to rely on luck and I was pleased when I managed to produce it on my first try.

Here it is, a "silver mirror" with aqueous ammonia removed:

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