Appearance and Characteristics
Harmful effects:
Silver is considered to be non-toxic. However, most silver salts are poisonous and some may be carcinogenic.
Characteristics:
Silver is a soft, ductile, malleable, lustrous metal. It has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals.
Silver is stable in oxygen and water, but tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds in air or water to form a black sulfide layer.
Uses of Silver
Sterling silver (an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper) or Britannia silver (an alloy of 95.8% silver and 4.2% copper) are used for jewelry and silverware.
Silver is used as a food additive/coloring and is given the E number E174.
About 30% of silver produced is used in the photographic industry, mostly as silver nitrate.
Silver is used in solders, electrical contacts, and silver-cadmium and silver-zinc batteries. Silver paints are used in the manufacture of electronic printed circuits.
It is used in superior mirror production, as silver is the best known reflector of visible light, although it does tarnish over time.
Silver iodide is used in artificial rain making to seed clouds.
Silver compounds were used successfully to prevent infection in World War 1.