silver nitrate

American  

noun

Chemistry, Pharmacology.

1. a white, crystalline, water-soluble, bitter, corrosive, poisonous powder, AgNO 3 , produced by the reaction of silver and dilute nitric acid: used chiefly in the manufacture of photographic emulsions and mirrors, as a laboratory reagent, and in medicine as an antiseptic, astringent, and in the routine prophylaxis of ophthalmia neonatorum.

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silver nitrate British  

noun

1. a white crystalline soluble poisonous substance used in making photographic emulsions, other silver salts, and as a medical antiseptic and astringent. Formula: AgNO 3 See also lunar caustic

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silver nitrate Scientific  

1. A poisonous, clear, crystalline compound that darkens when exposed to light. It is used in photography and silver plating, and as an external antiseptic. Chemical formula: AgNO ₃ .

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Etymology

Origin of silver nitrate

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

The researchers began by mixing two polymers with potassium bicarbonate, an acid-neutralizing compound, and silver nitrate, which forms antimicrobial nanoparticles that link the polymers together to form a gel.

From Science Daily

But the director kept a copy, shot on highly unstable silver nitrate film, in his freezer.

From Los Angeles Times

My mother treated them with silver nitrate, which hurt like heck.

From Seattle Times

Fires took others—silver nitrate, the compound in early film stock which makes the images shimmer, is so flammable that a tightly wound roll of such film can burn even submerged in water.

From The New Yorker

It includes a little detective story, told by a fellow chemist, of how intermittent batches of silver nitrate papers supplied for X-ray imagery were spoilt.

From Nature