I'm taking Chem I at community college. We just did a lab on ionic compounds and solubility. We combined a bunch of aqueous solutions with others and watched for precipitation. I asked my professor why the silver nitrate solution is in a dark bottle, and the answer was that it decomposes when exposed to light. I've done some poking around trying to understand that more, but all I've found is an equation like:
2AgNO3 -> 2Ag + O2 + 2NO2
But that leaves me with questions: if the bottle were kept closed, would the decomposition be slowed? If the bottle were left open and in the dark, would decomposition occur anyway, but maybe more slowly? And is it visible light only? Presumably it's a range of wavelengths that would cause the decomposition; is it a broad range or very narrow? Thanks.