Silver Tarnish is a Good Thing

Many people believe that silver tarnish is bad, nothing could be further from the truth. Most tarnish on silver is simply Silver Sulfide , this occurs when the outer most silver atoms come in contact sulfur in the air, two silver atoms grab one sulfur atom and you have tarnish. This process can easily be reversed causing no silver metal to be lost. The first Egyptian sarcophagus were made of silver not gold and are still intact today.

While silver is the most electrically conductive metal, sulfur is the best insulator of all elements, so tarnish on silver is actually a very good thing enabling all kinds of uses from solar cells, to batteries, to semiconductors. This tarnish is one of the very things that sets silver apart from all other metals.
Sources:
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1957SvA.....1..416S
http://www.nersc.gov/news/science/superlattice.php
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0268-1242/20/6/017

The concept that the demand for silver will diminish because photographic use of silver is in decline is nonsense. The fact that the silver used to produce black and white and color photographs has gone digital simply means that the silver rather than being used as silver nitrate and recycled (90% of silver in photography is recycled) the silver is instead being used inside the digital camera or cell phone to create the image and then being discarded into landfill. So instead of the silver being recycled it is lost. This will ultimately increase the demand for silver. Silver is used in solder, and in silver inks to produce circuit boards, in addition it can also be found in the batteries that power the digital cameras and cell phones.

Thirdly, nobody produces silver. Silver is made from Iron in Supernovas. Silver is found not produced. It would take all of the energy our sun produces in a ten billion year time frame to produce silver. Nobody on earth will ever produce silver.

Todays electronics industry is built on two-dimensional semiconductor materials that feature carefully controlled doping and interfaces. Tomorrows industry will be built on one-dimensional materials, in which controlled doping and interfaces are achieved through superlatticed structures. Formed from alternating layers of semiconductor materials with wide and narrow band gaps, superlatticed structures, such as striped nanorods, can display not only outstanding electronic properties, but photonic properties as well.

A target of colloidal nanocrystal research has been to create superlatticed structures while leveraging the advantages of solution-phase fabrication, such as low-cost synthesis and compatibility in disparate environments, Alivisatos said. A colloidal approach to making striped nanorods opens up the possibility of using them in biological labeling, and in solution-processed LEDs and solar cells.

Previous research by Alivisatos and his group had shown that the exchange of cations could be used to vary the proportion of two semiconductors within a single nanocrystal without changing the crystals size and shape, so long as the crystals minimum dimension exceeded four nanometers. This led the group to investigate the possibility of using a partial exchange of cations between two semiconductors in a colloid to form a superlattice. Working with previously formed cadmium-sulfide (CdS) nanorods, they engineered a cation exchange with free-standing quantum dots of the semiconductor silver sulfide (Ag2S) (Silver Sulfide) Commonly called Tarnish

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Silver
• Tarnish
• Silver Sulfide
• Sulfur
• Elements
• Properties

[rytis1]

thecomicsitedotcom

Do you know how to clean "milk spots" on Maple Leafs?? It seems like they use some kind of acid at mint, and usual methods don't work

[thecomicsitedotcom]

I wouldn't clean a maple leaf, the value is in the silver not the appearance of the coin, but if you really must, I would try a silver jewelry cleaner that does not require rubbing of any kind.

[tesskansas]

Tesskansas again. Is it wise to clean sterling silver rounds? I am referring to my artful set from the Franklin Mint (circa 1970).- I am not concerned about the tarnish look. It is the pitting look that concerns me. Thanks.

[thecomicsitedotcom]

I know that with collectibles as a general rule you should NOT remove the patina "tarnish" it reduces value.

[tesskansas]

Can you comment on Sterling Silver. I purchased a 60 piece set of artful rounds (in Franklin Mint Binder). I paid about $1200.00. Did I get a fair deal on the metal? Or did I just get pretty slugs that look like silver. Several of the rounds are tarnishing (silver sulfide?).-thank you.

[thecomicsitedotcom]

Sterling is .925 silver by weight so weigh them and multiply by .925 to find actual silver content. Assuming they are 1 oz rounds you paid about $21.62 per ounce of silver. I prefer bullion coins like maple leafs with a $5 dollar face value that you can get for about $19 right now. Not a terrible deal though.

[TheMetalElement]

Tarnished silver is pretty.

[MadCanada597]

Silver can be used to clean water, and is now found in most bandages... its an antibacterial and antifungal agent... plus, you wont get heavy metal poisoning from it like you can gold.

[silverjunky999]

excellent

[tesskansas]

Thank you very much. Glad there is a fair amount of silver in these 1 oz. rounds. The art part of these rounds are a good part of why I am attracted to them. They also include some historical trivia on the rounds. The artist whom designed the obvserse did beautiful work. -- I really feel like I got lucky with this acquisition. Thanks.