@kevemaher
It is not recommended to clean silver (Ag) surfaces with a scouring pad. A scouring pad will increase the surface roughness of the Ag. Roughing a Ag surface disrupts the ordered Ag crystal lattice, creating surface defects. Atoms at these defect sites have fewer nearest neighbors (lower coordination number) compared to a smooth surface or in the bulk, where atoms are fully coordinated. These uncoordinated atoms are more chemically reactive because they have dangling bonds that are not tied to neighboring atoms. Ag reacts very rapidly with organic sulfur compounds in the atmosphere to form silver sulfide (Ag2S), which is a semiconductor with a band gap of about 1.1eV. This reaction primarily occurs at uncoordinated Ag sites. Because the roughened surface has more uncoordinated Ag sites, it is now more reactive and more prone to corrosion.
