Marshall wrote: > The silver particles are surrounded by OH radicals according to you. An OH > radical has an extra electron and makes the particle slightly negative. > Thus it should attract an Ag + ion, and the OH should be able to supply an > electron so it can plate out on the particle. I see no natural repulsion > between an Ag+ ion and a negative silver particle.
The proof that it does not happen is that ions and particles coexist together just fine. If your theory was correct, then eventually all the ions would be removed from the solution leaving only large particles. Clearly this does not occur. Technically speaking, the force of attraction or repulsion of electric charges is inversely proportional to the dielectric constant of the medium surrounding the charges. Water has a very high dielectric constant of about 80 at room temperature. This means that the two opposite electric charges in water attract each other with a force only 1/80 as strong as in air or a vacuum. Thermal agitation of the ions is great enough to cause the ions to dissociate. It is common that ions of opposite charge coexist in solution. For example, when salt is dissolved in water the resulting solution contains sodium ions (Na+) and chloride ions (Cl-) of opposite charge. 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]>
