American Elements: Silver Foil Supplier & Tech Info

See research below. American Elements specializes in producing Silver as rolled foils and sheets in various thicknesses and sizes. Most foils are produced from cast ingots for use in coating and thin film Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) processes including

Thermal and Electron Beam (E-Beam) Evaporation, Low Temperature Organic Evaporation, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), Organometallic and Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) for specific applications such as fuel cells and solar energy. Thickness can range from 0.003" to approximately 2mm for all metals. Some metals can also be rolled down as thin as 0.001". Piece sizes are available up to approximately 7" maximum width. Maximum lengths of about 20" can be obtained with a nominal thickness between about 0.005" and 0.020" for thin film deposition on glass or metal substrates. Materials are produced using crystallization, solid state and other ultra high purification processes such as sublimation. American Elements specializes in producing custom compositions for commercial and research applications and for new proprietary technologies. American Elements also casts any of the rare earth metals and most other advanced materials into rod, bar or plate form, as well as other machined shapes and through other processes such as nanoparticles (See also application discussion at Nanotechnology Information and at Quantum Dots) and in the form of solutions and organometallics. We also produce Silver as rods, powder and plates. Oxide compounds are not conductive to electricity. However, certain perovskite structured oxides are electronically conductive finding application in the cathode of solid oxide fuel cells and oxygen generation systems. Other shapes are available by request.

Silver is a Block D, Group 11, Period 5 element. The electronic configuration is [Kr]4d¹⁰5s¹. In its elemental form silver's CAS number is 7440-22-4. The silver atom has a radius of 144.5.pm and it's Van der Waals radius is 144.pm. Silver has a brilliant white metallic luster. It is a little harder than gold and is very ductile and malleable, being exceeded only by gold and perhaps palladium. Pure silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals, and possesses the lowest contact resistance. It is stable in pure air and water, but tarnishes when exposed to ozone, hydrogen sulfide, or air containing sulfur.