ElementsWhat is silver?
Silver is a soft, white, shiny metal used since ancient times for money and ornaments. It carries electricity and heat better than any other metal. It tarnishes black in air that contains sulfur.
What is silver used for?
Jewellery and silverware, coins and bars, electrical contacts, solar panels, and mirrors.
Where the name comes from
From an Old English word. The symbol Ag comes from argentum, its Latin name.
Key facts
- Symbol
- Ag
- Atomic number
- 47
- Atomic mass
- 107.868 u
- Family
- Transition metal
- Period
- 5
- Group
- 11
- Block
- d
- State at room temperature
- Solid
- Melting point
- 961.8 °C (1,235 K, 1,763 °F)
- Boiling point
- 2,162 °C (2,435 K, 3,923 °F)
- Density
- 10.5 g/cm³
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 8, 18, 18, 1
- Electron configuration
- [Kr]5s1 4d10
- Common oxidation states
- +1
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 1.93
- First ionisation energy
- 7.576 eV
- Electron affinity
- 1.302 eV
- Atomic radius (van der Waals)
- 172 pm
- Discovered
- Known since ancient times
Place in the periodic table
Silver is element number 47. It sits in period 5 (row 5) of the periodic table, in group 11 (column 11), and belongs to the d-block. Just before it comes palladium (46), and just after it comes cadmium (48). In the same column, copper is above it and gold is below it. Elements in one column tend to behave alike.
Family: Transition metals.
Physical properties
At room temperature silver is a solid. It melts at 961.8 °C and boils at 2,162 °C, so it stays liquid over a range of 1,200 degrees. Its density is 10.5 grams per cubic centimetre, so a one-litre block would weigh about 10.5 kilograms. By density it ranks 24th among the 96 elements with a measured value.
Inside the atom
An atom of silver has 47 protons in its nucleus and, when neutral, 47 electrons around it. The electrons are arranged in 5 shells: 2, 8, 18, 18, 1. The outermost shell holds 1 electron. Written in full, the electron configuration is [Kr]5s1 4d10.
Its electronegativity on the Pauling scale is 1.93. This number shows how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons towards itself: fluorine, the strongest, is 3.98. Removing one electron from an atom takes 7.576 electronvolts (about 731 kilojoules per mole). One mole of silver weighs 107.868 grams, so a single gram contains about 5.58 × 1021 atoms.
The ring picture is a simple model that only counts the electrons in each shell. Real atoms do not look like this.
Next steps
- Work out the weight of a compound that contains silver with the molar mass calculator.
- Compare it with every other element in the sortable list.
- Test yourself with the symbol quiz.
Figures on this page are from PubChem (U.S. National Library of Medicine), as downloaded on 11 November 2026. See About and data sources.