silver

• Description
• General information
• Physical data
• Radii
• Electronegativities
• Solid state structure
• Temperatures
• Enthalpies
• Ionization Enthalpies
• Isotopes
• Further information

Description

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.

General information

Discoveror: Known since ancient times
Date discovered:
Discovered at: not known
Meaning of name: From the Anglo-Saxon word "siolfur" meaning "silver" (the origin of the symbol Ag comes from the Latin word "argentum" meaning "silver")

Physical data

Standard state: solid at 298 K
Colour: silver
Density of solid at ambient temperature/kg m^-3: 10490
Molar volume/cm³: 10.27

Radii /pm

Atomic: 165
Covalent (single bond):
Pauling radius for the ion [Ag]^-: no data

Valence shell orbital radius maxima (R_max)

orbital	s	p	d	f
radius	153.2	no data	54.7	no data

Electronegativities

Both values are quoted on the Pauling scale.

Pauling: 1.93
Allred Rochow: 1.42

Crystal Structure

structure: ccp (cubic close-packed)

The following CrystalMaker image represents the solid state structure. For most elements, the most stable allotrope is illustrated. Try WebElements version 2 for interactive virtual reality and CHIME images.

Temperatures (/K)

melting point: 1234.93
boiling point: 2435

Enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

fusion: 11.6
vaporization: 254

single bond enthalpies:

Ag-F	Ag-Cl	Ag-Br	Ag-I	Ag-Ag
no data	no data	no data	no data	163

Ionization enthalpies /kJ mol^-1

Number	Enthalpy
1st	731.0
2nd	2073
3rd	3361

Isotopes

This section gives some data for naturally occurring isotopes.

Nominal mass	Accurate mass	% natural abundance
107Ag	106.905092 (6)	51.839 (7)
109Ag	108.904756 (4)	48.161 (7)

Further Information

• Additional information about WebElements 1.2.2
• This is a licensed copy (here is the full list) of WebElements 1.2.2 and contains a subset of the material contained within the main version of WebElements (version 2)
• For further information please try WebElements version 2
• Sheffield Chemdex: perhaps the largest internet chemistry directory
• Sheffield Chemputer: interactive chemistry calculators on the WWW