Potential hazards of silver nitrate

[woelen]

It is 0.8 V for: Ag(+) + e --> Ag

It is 1.98 V for: Ag(2+) + e --> Ag(+)

 

You will never encounter Ag(2+) ions in your everyday life. This is exceedingly rare and only can be made by oxidation of silver with extreme oxidizers like ClF3, F2 or XeF6. Ordinary silver ions, such as in silver nitrate, are Ag(+) ions.

 

Ag(2+) ions are not stable in water, they oxidize water, forming oxygen gas. Ag(+) ions still are quite strong oxidizers, but not so strong that they oxidize water, but sufficiently strong to oxidize skin, paper, etc.

 

Redox potentials never are for a single compound, they are defined for the transition of one compound into another. So, it has no sense to tell something about the redox potential of e.g. silver metal. It does have sense to tell something about the redox potential of change of silver ion to silver metal.