A lady I work with had been using SilvaSorb Gel on a wound. Somehow the gel got on a chrome bathroom fixture, faucet spout I believe. This fixture is now discolored like tarnished silver, and she can’t seem to get the discoloration off.
I’m guessing that the silver ions in the gel have actually plated onto the chrome finish and will be difficult to remove.
I suggested trying to polish with jeweler’s rouge or some other mild abrasive. She’s not tried that yet so I don’t know if it will work.
Good guess.
If polishing doesn’t work, she might try a paste of saltpeter (potassium nitrate) in vinegar.
Put it on, and let it sit with occasional scrubbing.
Unlike most silver salts, the nitrate is water soluble. The vinegar should provide enough acidity to slowly get the silver into solution.
You can get saltpeter at most gardening stores. It’s sold as “stump remover”.
The hardcore approach would be to simply dump some nitric acid on the fixture, and wipe it off before it eats the chrome, but that approach could easily cause trouble in most hands.
Is the surface slightly yellow? It is also possible that somehow she stripped off the chrome and what you are looking at is the nickel underneath. Hydrochloric acid will do this very quickly. Silver will plate out spontaneoulsy on many surfaces, but in doing so it would dissolve some metal.
I can’t figure out what the chemical make-up of this stuff is.
No, surface is not yellow. I’m told it looks just like tarnished silver. I guess that’s because it is!
I seem to recall that potassium nitrate would be available at a drugstore. At least in small amounts. Of course since most everything’s a chain now it might no longer be true.
Tarnished silver can have a yellow appearance IMO. If the chrome is stripped off, the surface will be shiny and silver with just a hint of yellow when compared to the blue color of the chrome. If you look into the interior of a cheaply chrome plated piece you will see this since chrome is very difficult to get into corners.
Try what Squink suggested, but if you have stripped off the chrome there is nothing you can do.