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What happened when?
Copper wire is dipped in silver nitrate solution

Answer
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Hint: The standard reduction potential is a measure of the ease of an element to lose its electrons. These values are obtained with reference to the hydrogen electrode. Higher the value of reduction potential higher is the ability of a metal to undergo the reduction. This results in the replacement of existing ions and forming a new composition of ions.

Complete step by step answer:
Copper ion  Cu2+  accepts two-electron and reduced to copper  Cu  metal
The reduction potential of copper is given as follows,
 Cu2+ + 2e  Cu E0 = +0.34 V 
The silver  Ag  also undergoes the reduction reaction. silver ion  Ag+  accepts the one electrons and reduces to elements. the reduction potential of the silver is,
 Ag+ + e  Ag E0 = +0.80 V 
From the above reduction values, it is clear that the reduction potential of the silver is more than that of the copper. Thus, copper will replace the silver ions.
When the copper wire is dipped in the silver nitrate solution, the silver ions which have more reduction value easily undergo the reduction, and copper which has low reduction potential with respect to silver undergoes the oxidation.
The silver is reduced from  Ag+ to the  Ag while the copper  Cu loses its two electrons and oxidize to Cu2+ .
The reaction reduction of silver and oxidation of copper is as shown below,
 Cu + AgNO3  Cu(NO3)2 + Ag+ 
As the reaction proceeds, Silver metal is precipitated as a white solid .The copper ion forms a compound with nitrate ion .The formed Copper nitrate is an inorganic compound and it is a blue crystalline solid .Thus the solution gradually turns into blue in colour.

Therefore, this is the reason when the copper wire is dipped in the silver nitrate solution, the solution turns blue.

Note: The tendency of a metal to lose electrons can be expressed in two ways. As a standard reduction potential  E0 (SRP )  or as the standard oxidation potential  E0 (SOP )  . Higher positive value indicates the elements easily reduced however high negative value indicates the element is readily oxidized. The SOP and SRP are related as,
 E0 (SRP ) = E0 (SOP ) 

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