MUSCAT CHEMICAL TAG::
reagent consists of a solution of silver nitrate, ammonia and some sodium hydroxide (to maintain a basic pH of the reagent solution). It was named after its discoverer, the German chemist Bernhard Tollens.
Tollens' reagent is an alkaline solution of ammoniacal silver nitrate and is used to test for aldehydes. Silver ions in the presence of hydroxide ions come out of solution as a brown precipitate of silver(I) oxide, Ag2O(s). This precipitate dissolves in aqueous ammonia,