Editing Silver (section)

===Intermetallic===
[[File:Ag-Au-Cu-colours-english.svg|thumb|upright=1.14|right|Different colors of silver–copper–gold alloys]]
Silver forms [[alloy]]s with most other elements on the periodic table. The elements from groups 1–3, except for [[hydrogen]], [[lithium]], and [[beryllium]], are very miscible with silver in the condensed phase and form intermetallic compounds; those from groups 4–9 are only poorly miscible; the elements in groups 10–14 (except [[boron]] and [[carbon]]) have very complex Ag–M phase diagrams and form the most commercially important alloys; and the remaining elements on the periodic table have no consistency in their Ag–M phase diagrams. By far the most important such alloys are those with copper: most silver used for coinage and jewellery is in reality a silver–copper alloy, and the [[eutectic mixture]] is used in vacuum [[brazing]]. The two metals are completely miscible as liquids but not as solids; their importance in industry comes from the fact that their properties tend to be suitable over a wide range of variation in silver and copper concentration, although most useful alloys tend to be richer in silver than the eutectic mixture (71.9% silver and 28.1% copper by weight, and 60.1% silver and 28.1% copper by atom).<ref name="Brumby et al-4">Brumby et al., pp. 54–61</ref>

Most other binary alloys are of little use: for example, silver–gold alloys are too soft and silver–[[cadmium]] alloys too toxic. Ternary alloys have much greater importance: dental [[amalgam (dentistry)|amalgams]] are usually silver–tin–mercury alloys, silver–copper–gold alloys are very important in jewellery (usually on the gold-rich side) and have a vast range of hardnesses and colours, silver–copper–zinc alloys are useful as low-melting brazing alloys, and silver–cadmium–[[indium]] (involving three adjacent elements on the periodic table) is useful in [[nuclear reactor]]s because of its high thermal neutron capture [[Cross section (physics)|cross-section]], good conduction of heat, mechanical stability, and resistance to corrosion in hot water.<ref name="Brumby et al-4" />