Research and Application Prospect of SAMs in Preventing Discoloration of Silver

Silver crafts suffer from discoloration when exposed to atmosphere polluted by sulphide.In view of the disadvantages of several common surface treatment processes to prevent silver tarnishing,such as electroplating noble metals,chemical passivation,electrochemical passivation,protective complexe membrane,solid lubrication layer and polymer coating,this paper briefly introduces the basic principle and characteristics,research progress and application of molecular self-assembling membrane(SAM) to anti-tarnishing of silver,and analyzes the broad application prospect of SAMs in preventing discoloration of silver crafts and some problems which need to be studied further.