Electrical and electronic uses were the second most-common single industrial use for silver, with 1, metric tons going into wires and gadgets in Jewelry, sterling silver and silver electroplated objects ran a distant third, using only metric tons.
Another 1, metric tons went to various other uses. Silver's antimicrobial properties have put this element in the doctor's bag of tricks; according to Wounds International , silver has been used to prevent the infection of injuries for hundreds of years. Silver doesn't kill microbes in its metallic form, in which it is unreactive. The metal works against bacteria only in ion form — it must lose an electron to become positively charged.
The positively charged silver ion interferes with bacterial cell walls and disrupts other microbial processes. Burn patients may use silver-antibiotic creams on their injuries, and some hospitals use silver-infused dressings for skin ulcers and other wound care. There are debates within the field, however, about the efficacy of these dressings, particularly after a review published in the Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews found that they don't speed wound healing.
A Wounds International working group of medical professionals, however, argued in that the dressings can be useful for localized infections. Some manufacturers have taken silver's antimicrobial magic as a marketing opportunity, creating silver-infused textiles that purport to stop smelly bacteria from setting up shop in the fabric.
The problem, according to Bernd Nowack, a researcher at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, is that you don't know what you're getting in these silver-infused fabrics. In fact, manufacturers may not even know what they're making. In multiple studies, he and his colleagues have found that the forms of silver supposedly present in these high-tech textiles are rarely what are actually embedded in the fabric.
That matters, because some forms of silver don't interact as readily with bacteria as others. For example, fiber-embedded silver exposed to air literally tarnishes, combining with sulfur to make silver sulfide.
Silver can be obtained from pure deposits, from silver ores such as argentite Ag 2 S and horn silver AgCl , and in conjunction with deposits of ores containing lead , gold or copper. Silver and silver compounds have many uses.
Pure silver is the best conductor of heat and electricity of all known metals, so it is sometimes used in making solder, electrical contacts and printed circuit boards. Silver is also the best reflector of visible light known, but silver mirrors must be given a protective coating to prevent them from tarnishing.
Silver has also been used to create coins, although today other metals are typically used in its place. Sterling silver, an alloy containing High capacity batteries can be made with silver and zinc and silver and cadmium.
Search Ducksters. It is classified as a transitional metal. Silver atoms have 47 electrons and 47 protons with 60 neutrons in the most abundant isotope. Characteristics and Properties Under standard conditions silver is a soft metal that has a shiny metallic finish. It is very ductile meaning it can be pulled into a wire and malleable meaning it can be hammered into a flat sheet.
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