Roger wrote: > Another question... Why don't the ions "plate out" on the particles > > anyway, specially, as Frank says, the particles carry a neutral charge? > > Silver ions do have a strong tendency to reduce back to the metal. Roger
For an ion to become a metallic particle (atom) is must take on an electron. Unless an electron is supplied to make the atom "whole" again, it remains an ion. Ions remain dispersed in the water due mutual repulsion caused by their "ionic charge" so would normally remain dispersed unless coerced into some other behavior. An action that would force the ions to take on an electron would be to evaporate the water containing the ions. The electron would be supplied by an available anion, which must be present. When the water containing silver ions is evaporated, this causes the formation of silver hydroxide and/or silver carbonate, both of which reduce to silver oxide. This explains why so much silver oxide is created when the water is evaporated from a highly ionic silver solution. The molecules of the silver oxide formed in this fashion are in the 1-3 nm range. frank key -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. To join or quit silver-list or silver-digest send an e-mail message to: [email protected] -or- [email protected] with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
