3 ms·
This explains a lot! My wife used to have this old silverware set, which was tarnished, and I was always complaining about how the pieces smelled like onions,
by derbOac 5y ago
This explains a lot!
My wife used to have this old silverware set, which was tarnished, and I was always complaining about how the pieces smelled like onions, especially if they were heated a little. She always made fun of me (she and my family think I have an uncanny sense of smell so they're used to it), but this makes sense to me now.
My family always had stainless flatware so that was really the only set I was exposed to regular use of.
- murphyslab 5y agoThe sulphide layer that develops is quite non-volatile, so that likely wasn't a direct source of the smell. It would likely be another organic compound and there is a known mechanism for iron. Compounds in our skin and sweat can react with the iron producing carbonyl- and organophosphine compounds. [0] Those compounds are more volatile than the original biomolecules and are quickly detected by our nose, possibly as an evolutionary response to blood. Similar processes would surely happen with other metal surfaces, and having a sulphide layer may even play a role providing reaction sites. [0]: https://phys.org/news/2006-10-iron.html https://phys.org/news/2006-10-iron.html
- derbOac 5y agoYeah after reading about it more I was wondering if maybe some other organic sulfide compound was reacting with it and creating the smell. I did never smell it on any other dishes or flatware, and it never went away with washing.