What is the charge of silver?

Silver typically has a +1 charge when involved in an ionic bond.

Although silver can form both +1 and +2 cations, the +2 is so rare that we usually name Ag + as silver ion, not silver(I) ion. Ag 2 + is named silver(II) ion. We will assume that all of the metallic elements other than those mentioned above can have more than one charge, so their cation names will include a Roman numeral.

When atoms form ionic bonds, they can either lose of gain electrons depending on which would make them stable. Acquiring stability is a result of having a full valence shell of electrons. Cations are formed when atoms lose electrons and anions are formed when atoms gain electrons.

Silver has an ionic charge of +1. You can look at the oxidation states on a more detailed periodic table. You could use context clues based off of what it is reacting with. You might also notice the trend for elements group 11 to have a +1 and elements in group 12 to have a +2.

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