Is there a way to reverse the effects of bleach on sterling silver?

Question

My sterling silver ring got tarnished because i had no idea that submerging it in bleach would do anything harmful while washing my sandals. It didn't do anything to my other ring! I hope there's a way to reverse the effects!

Answer 1

Silver polish.

Your ring is sterling silver, an alloy (usually with copper) that is harder than pure silver. Presuming the immersion was reasonably brief, you will likely have a surface coating of silver hypochlorite on your ring. This should polish off with any commercial silver polish.

There is also a chemical method of removing tarnish, which is generally silver sulfide. See: http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/homeexpts/TA... for details. Without some more research, I cannot say if this will work with silver hypochlorite. Polishing should work and remove only a little of the silver from your ring.

Answer 2

Bleach is a strong oxidizing agent, and silver is easily oxidized.  Most tarnish is silver sulfide formed from sulfides in the air, but because of the way the oxidation was done, this tarnish is probably silver oxide.  The way to do it most quickly and easily is probably silver polish.  However, if you feel like playing with chemistry, there is a method that sometimes seems to work well, and sometimes doesn't.  You put the silver in a container (plastic is best to avoid corrosion of metal) add salt to conduct electricity, and some aluminum foil freshly torn up into small pieces.  The oxidation passes to the aluminum, reducing the silver.  You still have to clean the silver by hand afterward.