Since ancient times, people have known shiny white metal. Silver (Ag) has been widely used as a material for jewelry. Its ability to have a disinfecting effect was used by masters to make home cookware.
In its pure form, silver is a very soft and plastic material. According to the shape of the structure, the silver crystal lattice looks like a cube with centered faces. A two-kilometer thin wire can be drawn from a gram of this metal. High density (10.5 g / cm3) allows silver to compete with lead in weight. But in terms of qualities such as electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity, silver has no competitors. A silver spoon in a glass of boiling water heats up with incredible speed, and the use of silver parts (conductors, contacts, terminals) in the design of various radio devices indicates their high quality and extraordinary technical characteristics.
The melting point of silver at 962 ° C facilitates its processing. Alloys of silver with various metals are widely used in various fields. A small admixture of copper in its composition makes the metal harder, more acceptable for the manufacture of a variety of products.
The melting point of silver is important not only in the process of its use, but also in mining. In addition, for this metal, along with smelting from ore, there are a number of chemical mining methods, such as cyanidation and amalgamation.
With virtually no oxidation in air, silver can dissolve large volumes of this gas. Even in the solid state, it, heated to 450 ° C, has the ability to absorb the amount of oxygen that is five times its size. For silver in the liquid state, this figure increases to 20 volumes. Knowing at what temperature silver melts, it is not difficult to reproduce a beautiful but dangerous experience in laboratory conditions. The cooling substance suddenly begins to behave unusually. The released oxygen breaks the crust on the solidifying surface of silver with great force, producing the effect of spontaneous spraying.
Initially, this metal was valuable as a material for jewelry. Attractive appearance, ease of processing, unusual plasticity and low melting point of silver, along with its healing properties, created the image of jewelry for health from this metal products. Modern jewelers, in addition to combining silver with precious stones, have learned to make gold solders on its surface. The technology of this process takes into account at what temperature gold melts (1064 ° C), and at what silver (962 ° C). Using a rare combination, jewelers were able to achieve high quality products at lower cost.
The use of this metal in technology is based on other, no less attractive properties than ductility and a relatively low melting point of silver. At the dawn of the development of electronics, technical silver was actively used in various radio components. As a rule, special demands were placed on the quality and reliability of such devices. Recently, there has been a significant displacement of silver by using new materials.
For silver, a job was found in the film and photo industries. The first iconoscope - the transmitting tube in television - also could not do without the use of silver.
Silver finds wide application in modern household appliances not as an excellent conductor of electric current, but as a substance with a unique disinfecting effect. Various filters, parts for medical equipment, washing machines and refrigerators are made using silver-containing compounds. With this technological solution, the ions of the substance work, carrying out their antiseptic activity.
Silver, due to its unique properties, is widely used in various sectors of human life. Starting its history with jewelry, it has been in space as part of complex technical devices. Became a participant in scientific and technological progress, finding application in a wide variety of radio engineering products. It made cinema viewers and the first viewers cry and laugh. And finally, it has found application in household appliances as a powerful means of cleaning and disinfecting.