Silver
Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
is a relatively unreactive metal, although it can form several compounds. The common
oxidation state
In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical Electrical charge, charge of an atom if all of its Chemical bond, bonds to other atoms are fully Ionic bond, ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons ...
s of silver are (in order of commonness): +1 (the most stable state; for example,
silver nitrate
Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called ''lunar causti ...
, AgNO
3); +2 (highly oxidising; for example,
silver(II) fluoride
Silver(II) fluoride is a chemical compound with the formula AgF2. It is a rare example of a silver(II) compound - silver usually exists in its +1 oxidation state. It is used as a fluorinating agent.
Preparation
AgF2 can be synthesized by fluori ...
, AgF
2); and even very rarely +3 (extreme oxidising; for example, potassium tetrafluoroargentate(III), KAgF
4). The +3 state requires very strong oxidising agents to attain, such as
fluorine
Fluorine is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists at Standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions as pale yellow Diatomic molecule, diatomic gas. Fluorine is extre ...
or
peroxodisulfate, and some silver(III) compounds react with atmospheric moisture and attack glass.
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, p. 1188] Indeed, silver(III) fluoride is usually obtained by reacting silver or silver monofluoride with the strongest known oxidizing agent,
krypton difluoride
Krypton difluoride, KrF2 is a chemical compound of krypton and fluorine. It was the first compound of krypton discovered. It is a volatile, colourless solid at room temperature. The structure of the KrF2 molecule is linear, with Kr−F distances ...
.
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, p. 903]
Oxides and chalcogenides
Oxides
Silver and gold have rather low
chemical affinities for oxygen, lower than copper, and it is therefore expected that silver oxides are thermally quite unstable. Soluble silver(I) salts precipitate dark-brown
silver(I) oxide, Ag
2O, upon the addition of alkali. (The hydroxide AgOH exists only in solution; otherwise it spontaneously decomposes to the oxide.) Silver(I) oxide is very easily reduced to metallic silver, and decomposes to silver and oxygen above 160 °C.
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 1181–82] This and other silver(I) compounds may be oxidized by the strong oxidizing agent
peroxodisulfate to black AgO, a mixed
silver(I,III) oxide
Silver(I,III) oxide or tetrasilver tetroxide is the inorganic compound with the formula Ag4O4. It is a component of silver zinc batteries. It can be prepared by the slow addition of a silver(I) salt to a persulfate solution e.g. AgNO3 to a Na2 ...
of formula Ag
IAg
IIIO
2. Some other mixed oxides with silver in non-integral oxidation states, namely Ag
2O
3 and Ag
3O
4, are also known, as is Ag
3O which behaves as a metallic conductor.
Other chalcogenides
Silver(I) sulfide, Ag
2S, is very readily formed from its constituent elements and is the cause of the black tarnish on some old silver objects. It may also be formed from the reaction of
hydrogen sulfide
Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is toxic, corrosive, and flammable. Trace amounts in ambient atmosphere have a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. Swedish chemist ...
with silver metal or aqueous Ag
+ ions. Many non-stoichiometric
selenide
A selenide is a chemical compound containing a selenium with oxidation number of −2. Similar to sulfide, selenides occur both as inorganic compounds and as organic derivatives, which are called organoselenium compound.
Inorganic selenides
Th ...
s and
tellurides
The telluride ion is the anion Te2− and its derivatives. It is analogous to the other chalcogenide anions, the lighter O2−, S2−, and Se2−, and the heavier Po2−.
In principle, Te2− is formed by the two-e− reduction of telluriu ...
are known; in particular, AgTe
~3 is a low-temperature
superconductor.
Halides
The only known dihalide of silver is
the difluoride, AgF
2, which can be obtained from the elements under heat. A strong yet thermally stable and therefore safe fluorinating agent, silver(II) fluoride is often used to synthesize
hydrofluorocarbon
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are synthetic organic compounds that contain fluorine and hydrogen atoms, and are the most common type of organofluorine compounds. Most are gases at room temperature and pressure. They are frequently used in air condit ...
s.
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 1183–85]
In stark contrast to this, all four silver(I) halides are known. The
fluoride
Fluoride (). According to this source, is a possible pronunciation in British English. is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic, Monatomic ion, monatomic Ion#Anions and cations, anion of fluorine, with the chemical formula (also written ), whose ...
,
chloride
The term chloride refers to a compound or molecule that contains either a chlorine anion (), which is a negatively charged chlorine atom, or a non-charged chlorine atom covalently bonded to the rest of the molecule by a single bond (). The pr ...
, and
bromide
A bromide ion is the negatively charged form (Br−) of the element bromine, a member of the halogens group on the periodic table. Most bromides are colorless. Bromides have many practical roles, being found in anticonvulsants, flame-retard ...
have the sodium chloride structure, but the
iodide
An iodide ion is I−. Compounds with iodine in formal oxidation state −1 are called iodides. In everyday life, iodide is most commonly encountered as a component of iodized salt, which many governments mandate. Worldwide, iodine deficiency ...
has three known stable forms at different temperatures; that at room temperature is the cubic
zinc blende
Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral with the chemical formula . It is the most important ore of zinc. Sphalerite is found in a variety of deposit types, but it is primarily in sedimentary exhalative, Mississippi-Valley type, and volcanogenic mas ...
structure. They can all be obtained by the direct reaction of their respective elements.
As the halogen group is descended, the silver halide gains more and more covalent character, solubility decreases, and the color changes from the white chloride to the yellow iodide as the energy required for
ligand-metal charge transfer (X
−Ag
+ → XAg) decreases.
The fluoride is anomalous, as the fluoride ion is so small that it has a considerable
solvation
Solvations describes the interaction of a solvent with dissolved molecules. Both ionized and uncharged molecules interact strongly with a solvent, and the strength and nature of this interaction influence many properties of the solute, includi ...
energy and hence is highly water-soluble and forms di- and tetrahydrates.
The other three silver halides are highly insoluble in aqueous solutions and are very commonly used in gravimetric
analytical methods.
All four are
photosensitive Photosensitivity is the amount to which an object reacts upon receiving photons, especially visible light. In medicine, the term is principally used for abnormal reactions of the skin, and two types are distinguished, photoallergy and phototoxicity. ...
(though the monofluoride is so only to
ultraviolet
Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...
light), especially the bromide and iodide which photodecompose to silver metal, and thus were used in
traditional photography.
The reaction involved is:
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 1185–87]
:X
− + ''hν'' → X + e
− (excitation of the halide ion, which gives up its extra electron into the conduction band)
:Ag
+ + e
− → Ag (liberation of a silver ion, which gains an electron to become a silver atom)
The process is not reversible because the silver atom liberated is typically found at a
crystal defect
A crystallographic defect is an interruption of the regular patterns of arrangement of atoms or molecules in crystalline solids. The positions and orientations of particles, which are repeating at fixed distances determined by the unit cell par ...
or an impurity site, so that the electron's energy is lowered enough that it is "trapped".
Other inorganic compounds
White
silver nitrate
Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called ''lunar causti ...
, AgNO
3, is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, especially the halides, and is much less sensitive to light. It was once called ''lunar caustic'' because silver was called ''luna'' by the ancient alchemists, who believed that silver was associated with the Moon.
It is often used for gravimetric analysis, exploiting the insolubility of the heavier silver halides which it is a common precursor to.
Silver nitrate is used in many ways in
organic synthesis
Organic synthesis is a branch of chemical synthesis concerned with the construction of organic compounds. Organic compounds are molecules consisting of combinations of covalently-linked hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen atoms. Within the gen ...
, e.g. for
deprotection
A protecting group or protective group is introduced into a molecule by chemical modification of a functional group to obtain chemoselectivity in a subsequent chemical reaction. It plays an important role in multistep organic synthesis.
In man ...
and oxidations. Ag
+ binds
alkene
In organic chemistry, an alkene, or olefin, is a hydrocarbon containing a carbon–carbon double bond. The double bond may be internal or at the terminal position. Terminal alkenes are also known as Alpha-olefin, α-olefins.
The Internationa ...
s reversibly, and silver nitrate has been used to separate mixtures of alkenes by selective absorption. The resulting
adduct
In chemistry, an adduct (; alternatively, a contraction of "addition product") is a product of a direct addition of two or more distinct molecules, resulting in a single reaction product containing all atoms of all components. The resultant is ...
can be decomposed with
ammonia
Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...
to release the free alkene.
Yellow
silver carbonate
Silver carbonate is the chemical compound with the formula Ag2 C O3. This salt is yellow but typical samples are grayish due to the presence of elemental silver. It is poorly soluble in water, like most transition metal carbonates.
Preparation a ...
, Ag
2CO
3 can be easily prepared by reacting aqueous solutions of
sodium carbonate
Sodium carbonate (also known as washing soda, soda ash, sal soda, and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield alkaline solutions in water ...
with a deficiency of silver nitrate.
Its principal use is for the production of silver powder for use in microelectronics. It is reduced with
formaldehyde
Formaldehyde ( , ) (systematic name methanal) is an organic compound with the chemical formula and structure , more precisely . The compound is a pungent, colourless gas that polymerises spontaneously into paraformaldehyde. It is stored as ...
, producing silver free of alkali metals:
[Andreas Brumby et al. "Silver, Silver Compounds, and Silver Alloys" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2008. ]
:Ag
2CO
3 + CH
2O → 2 Ag + 2 CO
2 + H
2
Silver carbonate is also used as a
reagent
In chemistry, a reagent ( ) or analytical reagent is a substance or compound added to a system to cause a chemical reaction, or test if one occurs. The terms ''reactant'' and ''reagent'' are often used interchangeably, but reactant specifies a ...
in organic synthesis such as the
Koenigs-Knorr reaction. In the
Fétizon oxidation Fétizon oxidation is the oxidation of primary and secondary Alcohol (chemistry), alcohols utilizing the compound Silver carbonate, silver(I) carbonate absorbed onto the surface of celite also known as Fétizon's reagent first employed by Marcel Fé ...
, silver carbonate on
celite
Diatomaceous earth ( ), also known as diatomite ( ), celite, or kieselguhr, is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that can be crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. It has a particle size ranging from more than 3& ...
acts as an
oxidising agent
An oxidizing agent (also known as an oxidant, oxidizer, electron recipient, or electron acceptor) is a substance in a redox chemical reaction that gains or " accepts"/"receives" an electron from a (called the , , or ''electron donor''). In ot ...
to form
lactone
Lactones are cyclic carboxylic esters. They are derived from the corresponding hydroxycarboxylic acids by esterification. They can be saturated or unsaturated.
Lactones are formed by lactonization, the intramolecular esterification of the corresp ...
s from
diols
A diol is a chemical compound containing two hydroxyl groups ( groups). An aliphatic diol may also be called a glycol. This pairing of functional groups is pervasive, and many subcategories have been identified. They are used as protecting gro ...
. It is also employed to convert
alkyl
In organic chemistry, an alkyl group is an alkane missing one hydrogen.
The term ''alkyl'' is intentionally unspecific to include many possible substitutions.
An acyclic alkyl has the general formula of . A cycloalkyl group is derived from a cy ...
bromides into
alcohol
Alcohol may refer to:
Common uses
* Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds
* Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life
** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages
** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...
s.
Silver fulminate
Silver fulminate (AgCNO) is the highly explosive silver salt of fulminic acid.
Silver fulminate is a primary explosive, but has limited use as such due to its extreme sensitivity to impact, heat, pressure, and electricity. The compound becomes p ...
, AgCNO, a powerful, touch-sensitive
explosive
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An ex ...
used in
percussion cap
The percussion cap, percussion primer, or caplock, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. Its invention gave ...
s, is made by reaction of silver metal with nitric acid in the presence of
ethanol
Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...
. Other dangerously explosive silver compounds are
silver azide
Silver azide is the chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula . It is a silver(I) salt of hydrazoic acid. It forms a colorless crystals. Like most azides, it is a primary explosive.
Structure and chemistry
Silver azide can be prepared ...
, AgN
3, formed by reaction of
silver nitrate
Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called ''lunar causti ...
with
sodium azide
Sodium azide is an inorganic compound with the formula . This colorless salt is the gas-forming component in some car airbag systems. It is used for the preparation of other azide compounds. It is highly soluble in water and is acutely poisonou ...
, and
silver acetylide
Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
, Ag
2C
2, formed when silver reacts with
acetylene
Acetylene (Chemical nomenclature, systematic name: ethyne) is a chemical compound with the formula and structure . It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is u ...
gas in
ammonia
Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...
solution.
In its most characteristic reaction, silver azide decomposes explosively, releasing nitrogen gas: given the photosensitivity of silver salts, this behaviour may be induced by shining a light on its crystals.
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, p. 1180]
: 2 (s) → 3 (g) + 2 Ag (s)
Coordination compounds
Silver complexes tend to be similar to those of its lighter homologue copper. Silver(III) complexes tend to be rare and very easily reduced to the more stable lower oxidation states, though they are slightly more stable than those of copper(III). For instance, the square planar periodate
5OH)2">g(IO5OH)2sup>5− and tellurate
2">g2sup>5− complexes may be prepared by oxidising silver(I) with alkaline
peroxodisulfate. The yellow diamagnetic
4">gF4sup>− is much less stable, fuming in moist air and reacting with glass.
Silver(II) complexes are more common. Like the valence isoelectronic copper(II) complexes, they are usually square planar and paramagnetic, which is increased by the greater field splitting for 4d electrons than for 3d electrons. Aqueous Ag
2+, produced by oxidation of Ag
+ by ozone, is a very strong oxidising agent, even in acidic solutions: it is stabilized in
phosphoric acid
Phosphoric acid (orthophosphoric acid, monophosphoric acid or phosphoric(V) acid) is a colorless, odorless phosphorus-containing solid, and inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is commonly encountered as an 85% aqueous solution, ...
due to complex formation. Peroxodisulfate oxidation is generally necessary to give the more stable complexes with heterocyclic
amine
In chemistry, amines (, ) are organic compounds that contain carbon-nitrogen bonds. Amines are formed when one or more hydrogen atoms in ammonia are replaced by alkyl or aryl groups. The nitrogen atom in an amine possesses a lone pair of elec ...
s, such as
4">g(py)4sup>2+ and
2">g(bipy)2sup>2+: these are stable provided the counterion cannot reduce the silver back to the +1 oxidation state.
4">gF4sup>2− is also known in its violet barium salt, as are some silver(II) complexes with ''N''- or ''O''-donor ligands such as pyridine carboxylates.
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, p. 1189]
By far the most important oxidation state for silver in complexes is +1. The Ag
+ cation is diamagnetic, like its homologues Cu
+ and Au
+, as all three have closed-shell electron configurations with no unpaired electrons: its complexes are colourless provided the ligands are not too easily polarized such as I
−. Ag
+ forms salts with most anions, but it is reluctant to coordinate to oxygen and thus most of these salts are insoluble in water: the exceptions are the nitrate, perchlorate, and fluoride. The tetracoordinate tetrahedral aqueous ion
2O)4">g(H2O)4sup>+ is known, but the characteristic geometry for the Ag
+ cation is 2-coordinate linear. For example, silver chloride dissolves readily in excess aqueous ammonia to form
3)2">g(NH3)2sup>+; silver salts are dissolved in photography due to the formation of the thiosulfate complex
2O3)2">g(S2O3)2sup>3−; and
cyanide
In chemistry, cyanide () is an inorganic chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom.
Ionic cyanides contain the cyanide anion . This a ...
extraction for silver (and gold) works by the formation of the complex
2">g(CN)2sup>−. Silver cyanide forms the linear polymer ; silver
thiocyanate
Thiocyanates are salts containing the thiocyanate anion (also known as rhodanide or rhodanate). is the conjugate base of thiocyanic acid. Common salts include the colourless salts potassium thiocyanate and sodium thiocyanate. Mercury(II) t ...
has a similar structure, but forms a zigzag instead because of the sp
3-
hybridized sulfur atom.
Chelating ligand
Chelation () is a type of bonding of ions and their molecules to metal ions. It involves the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between a Denticity, polydentate (multiple bonded) ligand and a single central metal atom ...
s are unable to form linear complexes and thus silver(I) complexes with them tend to form polymers; a few exceptions exist, such as the near-tetrahedral
diphosphine
Diphosphane, or diphosphine, is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . This colourless liquid is one of several binary phosphorus hydrides. It is the impurity that typically causes samples of phosphine to ignite in air.
Properties, ...
and
diarsine complexes
2">g(L–L)2sup>+.
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 1195–96]
Organometallic compounds
Under standard conditions, silver does not form simple carbonyls, due to the weakness of the Ag–C bond. At cryogenic temperatures, fragile complexes with 13 CO ligands form.
Polymeric AgLX complexes with
alkene
In organic chemistry, an alkene, or olefin, is a hydrocarbon containing a carbon–carbon double bond. The double bond may be internal or at the terminal position. Terminal alkenes are also known as Alpha-olefin, α-olefins.
The Internationa ...
s and
alkyne
\ce
\ce
Acetylene
\ce
\ce
\ce
Propyne
\ce
\ce
\ce
\ce
1-Butyne
In organic chemistry, an alkyne is an unsaturated hydrocarbon containing at least one carbon—carbon triple bond. The simplest acyclic alkynes with only one triple bond and n ...
s are known, but their bonds are thermodynamically weaker than even those of the
platinum
Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...
complexes (though they are formed more readily than those of the analogous gold complexes): they are also quite unsymmetrical, showing the weak ''π'' bonding in group 11. Ag–C ''σ'' bonds may also be formed by silver(I), like copper(I) and gold(I), but the simple alkyls and aryls of silver(I) are even less stable than those of copper(I) (which tend to explode under ambient conditions). For example, poor thermal stability is reflected in the relative decomposition temperatures of AgMe (−50 °C) and CuMe (−15 °C) as well as those of PhAg (74 °C) and PhCu (100 °C).
[Greenwood and Earnshaw, pp. 1199–200]
The C–Ag bond is stabilized by
perfluoroalkyl ligands, for example in AgCF(CF
3)
2.
Alkenylsilver compounds are also more stable than their alkylsilver counterparts. Silver-
NHC complexes are easily prepared, and are commonly used to prepare other NHC complexes by displacing labile ligands. For example, the reaction of the bis(NHC)silver(I) complex with
bis(acetonitrile)palladium dichloride or
chlorido(dimethyl sulfide)gold(I):
:
Intermetallic compounds

Silver forms
alloy
An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...
s with most other elements on the periodic table. The elements from groups 1–3, except for
hydrogen
Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
,
lithium
Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the ...
, and
beryllium
Beryllium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, hard, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with ...
, are very miscible with silver in the condensed phase and form intermetallic compounds; those from groups 4–9 are only poorly miscible; the elements in groups 10–14 (except
boron
Boron is a chemical element; it has symbol B and atomic number 5. In its crystalline form it is a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid; in its amorphous form it is a brown powder. As the lightest element of the boron group it has three ...
and
carbon
Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
) have very complex Ag–M phase diagrams and form the most commercially important alloys; and the remaining elements on the periodic table have no consistency in their Ag–M phase diagrams. By far the most important such alloys are those with copper: most silver used for coinage and jewellery is in reality a silver–copper alloy, and the
eutectic mixture
A eutectic system or eutectic mixture ( ) is a type of a homogeneous mixture that has a melting point lower than those of the constituents. The lowest possible melting point over all of the mixing ratios of the constituents is called the ''eutec ...
is used in vacuum
brazing
Brazing is a metal-joining process in which two or more metal items are joined by melting and flowing a filler metal into the joint, with the filler metal having a lower melting point than the adjoining metal.
Brazing differs from welding in ...
. The two metals are completely miscible as liquids but not as solids; their importance in industry comes from the fact that their properties tend to be suitable over a wide range of variation in silver and copper concentration, although most useful alloys tend to be richer in silver than the eutectic mixture (71.9% silver and 28.1% copper by weight, and 60.1% silver and 39.9% copper by atom).
[Ullmann, pp. 54–61]
Most other binary alloys are of little use: for example, silver–gold alloys are too soft and silver–
cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12 element, group 12, zinc and mercury (element), mercury. Like z ...
alloys too toxic. Ternary alloys have much greater importance: dental
amalgams
Amalgam most commonly refers to:
* Amalgam (chemistry), mercury alloy
* Amalgam (dentistry), material of silver tooth fillings
** Bonded amalgam, used in dentistry
Amalgam may also refer to:
* Amalgam Comics, a publisher
* Amalgam Digital, an in ...
are usually silver–tin–mercury alloys, silver–copper–gold alloys are very important in jewellery (usually on the gold-rich side) and have a vast range of hardnesses and colours, silver–copper–zinc alloys are useful as low-melting brazing alloys, and silver–cadmium–
indium
Indium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol In and atomic number 49. It is a silvery-white post-transition metal and one of the softest elements. Chemically, indium is similar to gallium and thallium, and its properties are la ...
(involving three adjacent elements on the periodic table) is useful in
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons ...
s because of its high thermal neutron capture
cross-section
Cross section may refer to:
* Cross section (geometry)
** Cross-sectional views in architecture and engineering 3D
* Cross section (geology)
* Cross section (electronics)
* Radar cross section, measure of detectability
* Cross section (physics)
...
, good conduction of heat, mechanical stability, and resistance to corrosion in hot water.
See also
*
Copper compounds
Copper forms a rich variety of compounds, usually with oxidation states +1 and +2, which are often called ''cuprous'' and ''cupric'', respectively. Copper compounds, whether organic Coordination complex, complexes or organometallics, promote or c ...
*
Gold compounds
Gold compounds are compounds by the element gold (Au). Although gold is the most noble of the noble metals, it still forms many diverse compounds. The oxidation state of gold in its compounds ranges from −1 to +5, but Au(I) and Au(III) dominate ...
References
{{Authority control
Compounds
Chemical compounds by element