Copper vs Silver
Both are transition metals, so they share the same broad chemistry.
The differences in plain English
- They sit in the same column, group 11, so they have the same number of outer electrons and react in similar ways; the heavier one, Silver, is usually the more reactive of the two if they are metals, and the less reactive if they are non-metals.
- Both are solids at room temperature.
- Silver is denser, about 17 per cent more than Copper (10.49 against 8.96 g/cm³).
- Copper melts at 1085 °C, Silver at 962 °C.
- An atom of Silver is about 70 per cent heavier than an atom of Copper (107.87 u against 63.55 u).
- Silver pulls electrons more strongly in a bond (electronegativity 1.93 against 1.9).
Side by side
| Copper | Silver | |
|---|---|---|
| Atomic number | 29 | 47 |
| Symbol | Cu | Ag |
| Family | Transition metal | Transition metal |
| Group / period | 11 / 4 | 11 / 5 |
| State at room temperature | Solid | Solid |
| Atomic mass | 63.546 u | 107.868 u |
| Density | 8.96 g/cm³ | 10.49 g/cm³ |
| Melting point | 1085 °C | 962 °C |
| Boiling point | 2562 °C | 2162 °C |
| Electronegativity | 1.9 | 1.93 |
| First ionisation energy | 745.5 kJ/mol | 731 kJ/mol |
| Electron configuration | [Ar] 3d10 4s1 | [Kr] 4d10 5s1 |
| Discovered by | Middle East | unknown, before 5000 BC |
Copper
Copper was the first metal people learned to hammer, shape and eventually melt, many thousands of years ago. It gave its name to the Copper Age and, mixed with tin, to the Bronze Age. Today it matters more than ever, because copper carries electricity better than any metal except silver, and the modern world runs on wires.
- The Statue of Liberty is clad in copper sheet, and its green colour is a protective layer of copper carbonates and sulfates that formed within a few decades of its unveiling.
- Octopus and crab blood is blue because it carries oxygen with a copper protein, haemocyanin, rather than iron-based haemoglobin.
Silver
Silver has been mined, hoarded and argued over for at least five thousand years. It is soft enough to shape with simple tools, bright enough to work as a mirror, and rare enough to serve as money. For most of recorded history those were its jobs: coins, cutlery, jewellery and ornament.
- Silver tarnishes not because of oxygen but because of tiny amounts of hydrogen sulfide in the air, which form a dark layer of silver sulfide.
- Polished silver reflects more visible light than any other metal, which is why it was used to back the earliest glass mirrors.
Colour the bubbles by density or melting point and the difference jumps out.
More comparisons
Data from Periodic-Table-JSON (CC BY-SA); temperatures rounded to the nearest degree. Written by Anthony.