Silver: description Your user agent does not support the HTML5 Audio element.

Silver is somewhat rare and expensive, although not as expensive as gold. Slag dumps in Asia Minor and on islands in the Aegean Sea indicate that man learned to separate silver from lead as early as 3000 B.C. Pure silver has a brilliant white metallic lustre. It is a little harder than gold and is very ductile and malleable. Pure silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals, and possesses the lowest contact resistance. Silver iodide, AgI, is (or was?) used for causing clouds to produce rain.

Silver is stable in pure air and water, but tarnishes when exposed to ozone, hydrogen sulphide, or air containing sulphur. It occurs in ores including argentite, lead, lead-zinc, copper and gold found in Mexico, Peru, and the USA.

Silver: compound properties

Silver: history

Silver was discovered by Known since ancient times in unknown at not known. Origin of name: from the Anglo-Saxon word "siolfur" meaning "silver" (the origin of the symbol Ag comes from the Latin word "argentum" meaning "silver").

Silver: isotopes

Isotope abundances of silver with the most intense signal set to 100%.

The two isotopes of Silver, Ag-107 and Ag-109 are used and have been proposed as precursor for the production of a number of radioisotopes. Ag-107 has been proposed for the (cyclotron) production of Pd-103, although the most common route for Pd-103 is via Rh-103 or Pd-104. Ag-109 is used for the production of Ag-110m which is used as a gamma reference source. Ag-109 can also be used for the production of In-110 (a replacement for the more commonly used In-111) and for the production of Cd-109, an 88 keV gamma reference source.

Silver: isolation

Isolation: silver is readily available commercially so it is not normally necessary to prepare silver in the laboratory. However the formation of silver metal may be demonstrated in a satisfying reaction in which copper metal is dipped into a solution of silver nitrate, AgNO3.

Cu(s) + 2 AgNO3 (aq) → Cu(NO3)2 + 2 Ag (s)

The result is formation of often attractive silver crystals and a blue-green solution of copper nitrate. Industrially, silver is usually a byproduct of processes whose main object is the extraction of another metal such as copper, lead, and zinc. So called "anode slimes" from the electrolytic purification of copper contain silver and a somewhat involved process is finished by an electrolysis of a nitrate solution containing silver.