Question

What are the constituents of the alloy called German Silver?

Answer 1

Hint: German silver has an appearance exactly like Silver metal and is made from 3 metals. One of the metals has an exception in case of its ground state electronic configuration. All the three metals used in this alloy are in the first series of transition metals.

Complete step by step solution:
Alloy is the mixture of metals which is in most cases found to be homogenous.
German silver is also an alloy made up of three metals.
- Ironically, Silver is not a part of German silver alloy. German silver looks like silver in appearance that’s why it is called German silver.
- The constituent metals of German silver are Copper, Nickel and Zinc.
- The percentage wise amount of constituent metals are 60% of Copper, 20% of Nickel and 20% of Zinc in German Silver.
- German silver alloy is also known as Nickel silver, Argentan and Nickel brass as well.

Additional Information:
German silver alloy has wide applications in our regular life as well as in other domains. Some of them are under.
- It is widely used in Jewelry on which silver is plated.
- Some musical instruments are made by German silver.
- Coins are also made by this alloy.
- German silver has corrosion resistant property, so it is used in automobile parts also.

Note: Remember that Silver is not a part of German silver alloy even though the name suggests this. If you are having difficulty in remembering the three constituent metals, then you can remember that they are neighbors in periodic table and atomic number of Nickel, Copper and Zinc is 28, 29 and 30 respectively.