Skip to the content
Browse the library

Silver (Ag)

Silver is the 47th element, a transition metal in the d-block. Its standard atomic weight is 107.868.

Period 5Group 11d-blockTransition metal
47Ag

Silver

107.868

What the table records

Atomic number
47
Standard atomic weight
107.868
Group
11
Period
5
Block
d-block
Category
Transition metal
Electron configuration
[Kr] 4d10 5s1
Valence electrons
11
Typical valence
Variable — no single default
Van der Waals radius
2.1 Å
Covalent radius
1.45 Å

The configuration above is the documented ground state (departs from the aufbau order).

How to read these numbers

The standard atomic weight is an average over the isotopes as they occur naturally, which is why it is rarely a whole number. It is the figure a molar mass calculation uses. Work in mass spectrometry wants the monoisotopic mass of a single isotope instead, which is a different number.

The two radii are not the same measurement. The covalent radius is half the distance between two bonded atoms of the element; the van der Waals radius is how close a non-bonded atom gets before repulsion takes over, and is always the larger. Space-filling models are drawn with the second, ball-and-stick models with the first — which is why the same molecule looks so different in the two.