Silver is a reflective metal used in jewelry, contacts, and optical coatings. Sulfur-containing substances can turn its surface dark by forming silver sulfide. Silver halides have a separate role in light-sensitive materials, connecting photographic images with the chemical changes triggered by light.
FROM ELEMENT TO APPLICATION
AN ELEMENT IN CONTEXT
Why alloy silver when making an object that must keep its shape?
Sterling silver alloy
FOLLOW THIS RELATIONSHIP
Begin with a soft metal
Pure silver has an attractive appearance but softness can limit a working object. Jewelry and tableware also need suitable mechanical behavior.
Explore the model (optional)
AgFORM → INTERACTION → CONSEQUENCE
Follow the explanation in either direction. These are authored steps, not a physical clock.
Optional: check your understanding
USE THE EXPLANATION
Which evidence would establish that a particular object meets the sterling composition?
Atomic identity, reference properties and structure models
INTERACTIVE 3D47 visible sites
An electron censusDrag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom
[Kr] 4d10 5s1. Grouping electrons by principal shell connects the neutral-atom configuration to periodic-table patterns.
What this representation means
A three-dimensional counting diagram. Dots are count markers, not measured electron positions; spherical placement and spacing are arbitrary. There are no electron trajectories here. Orbitals describe quantum states.
Silver was worked long before modern elemental theory, so assigning one discoverer would be misleading. Mining evidence reaches back to around the third millennium BCE in parts of the eastern Mediterranean, and the Laurium mines later supplied ancient Athens. Silver's story spans both material recognition and chemical explanation: people could shape, exchange, and value the metal centuries before understanding atoms or the chemistry of its .
Around 3000 BCE
Early mining
Silver mining is documented in parts of the eastern Mediterranean.
Around 600 BCE
Laurium mining
Silver extraction at Laurium became important in ancient Greece.
Silver can occur as native metal, but much is chemically combined in and . It is also recovered while processing ores of copper, lead, and zinc. These routes connect familiar silver objects to several mining systems, not merely to deposits containing visible pieces of metallic silver.
Silver is a soft, highly conducting metal, so practical objects often use . Its surface can tarnish through reaction with sulfur-containing substances, forming silver sulfide. That dark surface is a chemical compound rather than dirt alone. A silver halide's response to light is another distinct chemical behavior.
Each section links its supporting references. Descriptions and diagrams were authored for this atlas. Source checks completed. Source checks dated 2026-09-06.
CITE THIS PAGE
Family labels and the group-3 layout are teaching conventions. A table position does not establish an unknown bulk property. Electronic configurations refer to neutral atoms; ions and material environments require their own account.
Read each reference property together with its units, conditions and the reference information below.
Not yet recorded: electron affinity, second ionization energy, ground-state term symbol, van der waals radius, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, electrical resistivity, crystal structure, lattice parameter a, space group, abundance in seawater, abundance in the universe, annual production, supply-risk listing, hazard classification, biological role, cas registry number, pubchem cid, wikidata item. These families are declared and awaiting an ingestion run against the source each names; they are listed here rather than shown as empty rows.
Physical
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Phase at 20 °C
solid
293.15 K, 101.325 kPa
Melting point in K
1235 K
at standard pressure unless noted
Boiling point in K
2435 K
101.325 kPa
Density in g/cm³
10.49 g/cm³
solids and liquids at 293 K; gases at 273 K and 101.325 kPa
Atomic and electronic
Intended reference: Pauling electronegativity scale · Widely tabulated; original in The Nature of the Chemical Bond
Electronegativity in Pauling
1.93 Pauling
Pauling scale
First ionization energy in kJ/mol
731 kJ/mol
gas-phase neutral atom, ground state
Covalent radius in pm
145 pm
single-bond covalent radius
Common oxidation states
+1
states met in ordinary compounds; not exhaustive
Occurrence and identity
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Abundance in the crust in mg/kg
0.075 mg/kg
upper continental crust, mass fraction
Has stable isotopes
Yesderived
Discovery year
Not recorded
WHERE IT SITS AMONG ITS NEIGHBORS
Electronegativity across period 5
Ag 1.93 Pauling · Silver
Electronegativity across period 5. Exact values.
Rb
0.82
Sr
0.95
Y
1.22
Zr
1.33
Nb
1.6
Mo
2.16
Tc
1.9
Ru
2.2
Rh
2.28
Pd
2.2
Ag
1.93
Cd
1.69
In
1.78
Sn
1.96
Sb
2.05
Te
2.1
I
2.66
Xe
2.6
Electronegativity down group 11
Ag 1.93 Pauling · Silver
Electronegativity down group 11. Exact values.
Cu
1.9
Ag
1.93
Au
2.54
The trend uses the same reference-property values as the periodic table. Elements with no recorded value are left out of the line rather than drawn at zero.
