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There are many claims being made about which type of the different forms of colloidal silver is best. We discuss these types in the Types of Colloidal Silver article. However, we thought it would be good to explain the primary quality of silver that gives it the health benefits being promoted. This may help you understand and sort though the different claims being made.
What is particle surface area?
In the world of colloids, particle surface area is the property of colloidal silver that directly determines the ability of the colloid to react with its environment. Silver has to come into contact with pathogens to be effective. A brick of silver has some surface area. However, if you cut it into slices, the same amount of silver has much more surface area. It is the same principle on a molecular level. The smaller you can make the particles of silver, the more silver surface area is available to come into contact with pathogens. Therefore the effectiveness of colloidal silver is related to how much particle surface area it has. The higher the particle surface area the more effective the colloidal silver.
Particle surface area is defined as the total surface area in square centimeters (cm2) of all the particles in one milliliter (mL) of colloid. In the world of chemistry the ability of one substance to interact with other substances in its environment is predicated on the surface area of the substances. Stated another way, reactivity increases with increasing surface area. A larger value of particle surface area increases the reactivity of the colloid.
In the booklet "Silver Colloids", Professor Gibbs wrote, "The size of the particles in the colloidal silver suspensions we use for health purposes is very important. Particle size controls the surface area and therefore the effectiveness of the colloidal silver suspension." For this reason particle surface area is the single most important property of colloidal silver.
Silver PPM
It is not uncommon for non-technical readers to mistaken believe that the concentration (ppm) of silver is the most important property. Companies selling silver protein type products will advertise very high values of silver concentration with the explanation that higher ppm concentrations are more effective but that is simply not true. In fact silver protein products have very low values of particle surface area owing to the very large size particles present in those products.
Colloid particle surface area increases as the concentration of metal particles increases. Colloids that have the highest percentage of their metal content in the form of nanoparticles will have the highest particle surface area. Therefore, colloids that are mostly ionic silver will have a low particle surface area since most of the metal content is in the form of metal ions not nanoparticles.
Colloid particle surface area increases as the particle size decreases. The highest particle surface area is achieved when there is a high concentration of nanometer or sub-nanometer sized particles. While this is the desired result, it is also the most difficult to achieve. Colloids containing high concentrations of large particles as found in silver protein products will have low particle surface area.
Ratio of surface area to mass is an expression of how efficiently a given mass of silver (concentration) is able to provide particle surface area. This ratio is calculated by dividing the particle surface area (sq. cm) by the mass (mg/L). For Silver Skin, this value would be 5.23 (104.7/20). The higher this value is the more efficiently the silver is being utilized to increase the particle surface area (effectiveness) of the colloid.
To put this value in perspective, a typical ionic silver product has a surface area to mass ratio of about 0.021 and a typical silver protein product has a ratio of about 0.024. The ratio for Silver Skin is over 200 times greater than either of these product types. In fact no other colloidal silver product has a surface area to mass ratio that even comes close to Silver Skin .
(More silver partical size information and related questions are found in the Colloidal Silver section's FAQ's)
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