Normally ionic is what you have when you dissolve an ionic compound, such as silver nitrate in water. Each atom of silver is an ion, coupled loosely with the cation, which in this case is the nitrate. Normally ionicsilver is poisonous due to the cation, and can cause bluing of the skin. If there is no cation, then I am not quite certain what is going on.
One of the apparent mechanisms by which silver kills pathogens is by maintaining a positive charge on the particle, which attracts oxygen, which then sticks to the surface. This cancels the positive charge of one atom of silver in the particle. The particle remains positively charged, and if a negatively charged pathogen happens by, attracts it like an electrostatic dust cloth. Now the pathogen and the oxygen are both adhering to the surface of the particle of silver, and both have lost their negative charge by gaining a positive charge from the silver atoms. They no longer repeal each other and quickly react, oxidizing the pathogen, and killing it. The enzyme that keeps the pathogen negatively charged breaks down, and the dead uncharged pathogen floats away, and the silver particle is left to do it all over again. This is a catalytic reaction where the silver catalyzes the oxydation of the pathogen. Now, if you have ionic silver, you have only one atom. Once it has attracted the oxygen, it is now neutral and no longer attracts any pathogens. If a pathogen happens to bump into the ionic atom then it can still be oxidized, but the likelyhood of this happening is thousands of times less than if the silver still had a positive charge and actively pulled it in. The bottom line is that this catalytic efficiency of silver clusters is very low at the ionic level, increases as the particles contain more atoms, then finally begins dropping again once too many atoms are hidden in the center. The peak efficiency has been reported to be in the range of 35 to 1,000 atoms or so. Big clumps of silver, and atoms of silver are almost nil in their catalytic effect. It seems quite likely that silver kills pathogens by other means as well, since this would not kill aerobic bacteria, yet silver does kill them. Hope this helps. Marshall Mercer wrote: > Could someone please tell me in plain english, suitable for a blond, whether > colloidal particles are smaller than ionic or the opposite is true and > whether one is better to take than the other? I know this may be debatable > but I gotta' know. :o) > > So far the ionics are winning with me. > > Jo > > >That is not how it works. What happens is the same as when you develop > film, > >silver compounds plate out onto any particles of silver that are there, > making > >them grow until they are trapped. Particles large enough to get caught > with > >colloidal silver are too large to make it through the stomach lining. > > > >Marshall > > -- > 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: > silver-list-requ...@eskimo.com -or- silver-digest-requ...@eskimo.com > with the word subscribe or unsubscribe in the SUBJECT line. > > To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com > Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html > List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@id.net>
