Silver nitrate is used in such applications as photography, the manufacture of mirrors, silver plating, the production of sympathetic (invisible) and indelible inks, and the coloring of porcelain. Silver nitrate is commonly used to stain protein gels for identification of proteinsas it binds to selective amino acid residues under weakly acidic or neutral pH conditions, notably to lysines. Silver nitrate is also utilized in the staining of nucleic acids and of glycoconjugates in gels. Silver nitrate is used in the chromatography of lipids, by HPLC and by TLC. In analytical chemistry, silver nitrate is used for the titrimetric determination of chloride content.