Silver – The Metal That Conducts Electricity and is Precious in Value

Silver is a soft metal that is metallic-white in color and contains chemical elements. Silver is formed naturally, just like gold and many other metals. It is commonly used to create metal coins apart from gold and copper. However, it’s extremely ductile and malleable. As a matter of fact, it is the most electrical conductive metal compared to others. In order to know the elaborate details regarding its components below are a few of them available to look at.

1. General description.

Silver has its own unique chemical symbol, i.e. Ag. 47 is its atomic number, and it’s known as a transition metal. Its atomic weight is counted in g mol- 1, and it has an electron configuration.

2. Physical.

When in 37 degrees Celsius its density almost reaches 10.5 cm-3. When heat is applied, silver melts at a density of about 9.3 g cm-3. It starts to melt when the temperature is about 961 degrees Celsius. The boiling temperature is even higher, around 216 degrees Celsius. It vaporizes when the temperature reaches 250.58 kJ mol-1.

3. Atomic.

Silver has three states of oxidation. Based on Pauling scale its electro-negativity is 1.93. Its atomic, covalent and Van der Waals radius being 144, approximately 145 and 172 picometre. It has different energies for ionization, i.e. 731 kilojoules mol-1 for 1st level, 2070 kilojoules mol-1 for 2nd and 3361 kilojoules mol-1 for 3rd.

Even though silver is more conductive than copper, it isn’t widely used for this purpose as much as copper is. This is because silver can easily tarnish in nature and it has a higher price value than copper. Due to these reasons, it is seen to be used more frequently for:

1. Jewelry. High-end pieces of jewelry and watches are some common uses of silver.

2. Tableware, home decorative items and utensils.

3. Films for photography.

4. Electronic and electrical items, for instance, keyboard for computers.

5. Dental equipment.

6. Mirrors and optic-based items.

7. Commercial usage. For instance, silver is widely used as catalyst where it involves chemical reactions.

8. Textile industry. Silver-ions are added to polymer to produce yarns.

9. Medicinal use. This particular metal has been known to be able to eliminate the presence of certain groups of virus, fungal and bacterium. These microorganisms can be eliminated effectively but it does not cause any harmful side effects to human.

10. Precious bullion. Silver bullion has been widely created by different countries from all over the world. Some of the main sources of this particular metal come from copper, gold ores, zinc and lead. It can be found in chlorargyrite and argentite whereby these are some kind of minerals. The fascinating thing is that this precious metal occurs natively. Several countries have been identified as the most active producers for this particular bullion coin. These countries are such as U.S., Canada, Mexico and Peru. Quality bullions contain at least 99.9% of this precious metal, and these bullions are available for public purchases.

Due to industrial needs and presence of competition, the value of silver has gone down quite terribly and starting from 2010 its average price is $18 per troy ounce or equivalent to $588 per kg.