silver

Examples of silver in the following topics:

• Silver

  • Dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides.
  • Silver sulfide also forms silver whiskers when silver electrical contacts are used in an atmosphere rich in hydrogen sulfide.
  • Silver chloride (AgCl) is precipitated from solutions of silver nitrate in the presence of chloride ions.
  • Other dangerously explosive silver compounds are silver azide (AgN3), formed by reaction of silver nitrate with sodium azide (NaN3), and silver acetylide, formed when silver reacts with acetylene gas.
  • Silver cyanide solutions are used in electroplating of silver.

• Precipitation Reactions

  • Aqueous silver nitrate (AgNO3) is added to a solution containing potassium chloride (KCl), and the precipitation of a white solid, silver chloride (AgCl), is observed:
  • Note that the product silver chloride is the precipitate, and it is designated as a solid.
  • For instance, if silver nitrate is added to a solution of an unknown salt and a precipitate is observed, the unknown solution might contain chloride (Cl-).

• Molecular, Ionic, and Complete Ionic Equations

  • For example, aqueous calcium chloride's reaction with aqueous silver nitrate can be written as follows:
  • Silver chloride is a precipitant of silver and chloride ions reacting in solution.

• Oxidation

  • When silver cation is the oxidant, as in the above equation, it is reduced to metallic silver in the course of the reaction, and this deposits as a beautiful mirror on the inner surface of the reaction vessel.
  • Silver is used as its ammonia complex, Ag(NH3)2(+), and cupric ions are used as citrate or tartrate complexes.

• Chemical Analysis

  • Those that form insoluble chlorides, such as lead, silver, and mercury.
  • Copper from a wire displaces silver in a silver nitrate solution it is dipped into, and solid silver precipitates out.

• Ion Separation by Fractional Precipitation

  • Prepare a solution of the unknown salt using distilled water and add a small amount of silver nitrate (AgNO3) solution.
  • Silver chloride (AgCl) is not soluble and forms a white precipitate.
  • In the above reaction, the silver carbonate is used up and the precipitate will disappear.
  • Bromides and iodides also form precipitates when they are reacted with silver nitrate, but both precipitates are pale yellow.

• Molar Solubility and Relative Solubility

  • The solubility products for cadmium carbonate (CdCO3) and silver carbonate (Ag2CO3) are almost exactly the same.
  • For silver carbonate, the expression is slightly different.
  • Although cadmium carbonate and silver carbonate have nearly the same solubility products, their solubilities in mol/L differ by a factor of 100.
  • The solubility of silver carbonate is sensitive to the square of the metal-ion concentration because two silver ions per carbonate ion are necessary to build the solid crystal.

• Halogen Compounds

  • Silver chloride is the precipitate formed when silver nitrate solution is added to chloride solution.

• The Periodic Table

  • Two notable exceptions include silver and mercury.
  • The symbol for silver is "Ag" from Latin argentum, which means "gray" or "shining."
  • The symbol for mercury is "Hg" from the Latinized Greek hydrargyrum, which means "water-silver."

• Iron, Cobalt, Copper, Nickel, and Zinc

  • Copper is a member of a family of metals known as the "coinage metals," which includes copper, silver, gold, and roentgenium.
  • Copper is the most heavily used of the coinage metals due to its electrical properties, its abundance (compared to silver and gold), and the properties of its brass and bronze alloys.
  • The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal.