Chemistry of silver(II): a cornucopia of peculiarities†

Silver is the heavier congener of copper in the Periodic Table, but the chemistry of these two elements is very different. While Cu(II) is the most common cationic form of copper, Ag(II) is rare and its compounds exhibit a broad range of peculiar physico-chemical properties. These include, but are not limited to: (i) uncommon oxidizing properties, (ii) unprecedented large mixing of metal and ligand valence orbitals, (iii) strong spin-polarization of neighbouring ligands, (iv) record large magnetic superexchange constants, (v) ease of thermal decomposition of its salts with O-, N- or C-ligands, as well as (vi) robust Jahn-Teller effect which is preserved even at high pressure. These intriguing features of the compounds of Ag(II) will be discussed here together with (vii) a possibility of electromerism (electronic tautomerism) for a certain class of Ag(II) salts.