In black-and-white photography, unexposed silver bromide () is dissolved by washing the film with a — d and f Block Elements Chemistry Question
Question
In black-and-white photography, unexposed silver bromide ($AgBr$) is dissolved by washing the film with a sodium thiosulphate (hypo) solution, forming a highly water-soluble complex. Exactly how many thiosulphate ($S_2O_3^{2-}$) ligands are directly coordinated to the central Silver ($Ag^+$) cation in this stable transition metal complex?
💡 Solution & Explanation
The fixing process relies on the formation of a highly stable, water-soluble coordination complex between the transition metal silver and the thiosulphate ligands. The balanced reaction is: $AgBr + 2Na_2S_2O_3 \rightarrow Na_3[Ag(S_2O_3)_2] + NaBr$. In the resulting complex, Sodium dithiosulphatoargentate(I), the central $Ag^+$ cation is coordinated directly to exactly $2$ thiosulphate ligands.