21 Incredible Uses For Silver!

21 Incredible Uses For Silver

1. Treating warts and corns - a commonly used treatment known as a caustic pencil uses silver
2. Media storage - a fine layer of silver or gold prolongs the life of a DVD
3. Deodorant - silver chloride is used in deodorants due to its antimicrobial activity
4. Keeps milk safe - before refrigerators, silver jugs and lids were used to keep drinks clean. Now, seals can be made with a silver coating.
5. Batteries - billions of silver oxide batteries are used in quartz watches, digital cameras, mobile phones, and much more. They're more expensive than regular batteries, but they're much better.
6. Engines - silver is used in many engines, including jet engines, because of it's high resistance to heat.
7. Stained glass
8. 3D printing - up to 20 million ounces of silver could be used per year by 2018 in LED lights, flexible screens, and interposer connections.
9. Antimicrobial lab coats - according to the CDC, 75,000 people died from infections they got from a hospital. Silver is now being used on lab coats to prevent infections such as MRSA and E. coli from spreading.
10. Touch screen gloves - having silver on the tips of gloves allows you to use a phone or touch screen computer with gloves on. Plus it's much more sanitary, due to silver being antimicrobial.
11. Water purification - NASA astronauts drink water purified with ionized silver instead of chlorine. Ceramic filters coated with colloidal silver are also being used to provide clean drinking water to developing countries.
12. Help to stop smoking - silver acetate is being used in mouth spray, chewing gum, and lozenges to help people stop smoking. The silver acetate tastes bad when mixed with smoke.
13. Laundry detergent - kills bacteria and odors at the same time.
14. Plastics - over 150 million ounces of silver sit within catalysts of the petrochemical industry to make different types of plastics.
15. Wood preservation - silver is used as a biocide in wood preservation. Research suggests that it may help prevent white dry rot decay in timber. Do it yourselfers are treating wooden work tops with silver to prevent bacterial contamination in the kitchen.
16. Automotive industry - over 36 million ounces of silver are used in the auto industry each year. Silver's uses is in cars in growing still.
17. Novelty explosives - the "snap poppers" kids buy for the 4th of July and throw to pop on the ground are made with silver, which detonates and makes a pop sound.
18. Photography - over 38 million ounces of silver were used for x-ray photography in hospitals in 2015.
19. Weather modification - commonly known as "cloud seeding," silver iodide is used to encourage cloud and rain formation for areas suffering from drought.
20. Solar panels - silver is a vital component for making solar panels because it's the most electrically and thermally conductive metal. A typical 3 x 5 foot solar panel uses 20 grams of silver.
21. Food garnishing - thin silver foil is used to garnish sweets and other delicacies in South Asian cuisine. 30-150 tons are used each year for that purpose alone.