Is this possible?

[Lols123]

We did a prac recently involving this reaction:
2-chloro-2-methylpropane + solid potassium hydroxide
HNO3 is added to neutralise the excess KOH
AgNO3 is added to precipitate the chloride ions. Cl- + AgNO3 --> AgCl + NO3-

However the precipitate I saw wasnt white, it was brown.
so what i was thinking that maybe not enough HNO3 was added to neutralise
leading to a reaction like this: 2 AgNO3 + 2 OH- �� Ag2O + H2O + 2 NO3-
Hence the brown precipitate was silver oxide?

Is this possible and if so, can it be listed as an error of the experiment?

[Lols123]

anyone?

[Mao]

Yes, it is a plausible explanation. I assume you did a fair bit of googling to figure out Ag2O is formed (as opposed to hydroxide), good job.

The brown precipitate could be a mixture of silver oxide and silver chloride.

Did you note the mass of t-butyl chloride, the mass of KOH, concentration of HNO3 and volume of HNO3? Even if they are estimates, you can do some stoichiometry and give some numbers to support your argument.

[pi]

Just out of curiosity, which MHS prac is this? I can't seem to find it in either of the EEI or normal prac booklets...