What causes cloudy silver chloride precipitation instead of a white one?

[HarperC]

I’m trying to precipitate silver chloride for a demonstration, but my solution stays cloudy instead of forming the distinct white curds I expected. I used sodium chloride and silver nitrate solutions, so I know the reaction should work, but maybe my concentrations are off or I didn’t use distilled water.

[Amelia96]

I’ve tried this a few times. I rinsed the glassware with distilled water, used fresh reagents, and stirred gently. The mix was cloudy at first, then after a few minutes the suspension started to settle and a white solid collected at the bottom. If yours stays milky, you may be looking at a colloidal suspension rather than a pellet. Let it sit undisturbed for a while to see what happens, and consider washing the solid if you do filter. Also double check that your water and reagents aren’t contaminated with soaps or extra salts.

[EvelynW]

I once used an older bottle of silver nitrate and it just stayed cloudy no matter what I did. A fresh bottle fixed it for me.

[EdwardW]

Could be that there are still enough ions to keep particles in suspension. With a tiny solubility product, high ionic strength can prevent flocculation, so it looks milky even though some solid is there,

[Andrew70]

One quick question: are you using distilled water and fresh reagents, or tap water and older bottles?