Why does silver have a such a strong affinity for sulfur?

According to HSAB theory or Pearson acid base concept, soft-soft and hard-hard interactions are more favourable than the soft-hard one. Silver and Sulfur are larger in size. They have less charge states and can be easily polarized. read more

Silver is an unreactive metal and barely reacts with oxygen, but has a strong affinity for the other elements in group 16 - sulfur, selenium and tellurium. Of these we mostly see silver sulfide, since this is a reaction product with hydrogen sulfide, and wherever there is sulfur there is hydrogen sulfide gas. read more

Both mercury and sulfur are 'soft' in their ionic forms. Pauling's concept of HSAB tells us that hard acids prefer to combine with hard bases, and soft acids prefer to combine with soft bases, to maximise covalency. read more

Many metals in addition to silver form compounds with sulfur. Some of them have a greater affinity for sulfur than silver does. Aluminum is such a metal. In this experiment, the silver sulfide reacts with aluminum. In the reaction, sulfur atoms are transferred from silver to aluminum, freeing the silver metal and forming aluminum sulfide. read more