Thermal conductivity of pure silver at various temperatures

Thermal conductivity of pure silver at various temperatures

Junjie Chen

Contributor: Junjie Chen, ORCID: 0000-0001-5055-4309, E-mail address: [e-mail], Department of Energy and Power Engineering, School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, 2000 Century Avenue, Jiaozuo, Henan, 454000, P.R. China

Silver is a chemical element with the atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. The metal is found in the Earth's crust in the pure, free elemental form, as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining. Silver has long been valued as a precious metal. Silver metal is used in many bullion coins, sometimes alongside gold: while it is more abundant than gold, it is much less abundant as a native metal. Its purity is typically measured on a per-mille basis. Silver is a relatively soft and extremely ductile and malleable transition metal, though it is slightly less malleable than gold. Silver crystallizes in a face-centered cubic lattice with bulk coordination number 12, where only the single 5s electron is delocalized, similarly to copper and gold. Unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in silver are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of silver. Unlike copper and gold, the energy required to excite an electron from the filled d band to the s-p conduction band in silver is large enough that it no longer corresponds to absorption in the visible region of the spectrum, but rather in the ultraviolet; hence, silver is not a coloured metal.

Thermodynamic temperature (degrees kelvin), Thermal conductivity (watts per meter-kelvin)

2            7830

5            17200

10          16800

20          5100

30          1930

40          1050

50          700

60          550

70          497

80          471

90          460

100        450

150        432

200        430

273.2            428

300        427

400        420

500        413

600        405

700        397

800        389

900        382