"Science," or rather "modern ignorance," has accustomed us to the limited way of seeing physical phenomena as being treatable separately (the reductionist paradigm). The generalization of this erroneous way of looking at things has effects in two directions:
1. Prevent true scientists from discovering deeper truths about the world around them
2. Helps the scoffers to trick those who do not have a rigorous scientific formation
In this situation there is an endless discussion about the "supremacy" of silver ions or nanoparticles. It has, however, been cut for a long time, but as in the 21st century there are groups of people who still believe on the basis of pseudo-evidence that the earth is flat (yes, you read well!), so it happens with so-called ionic silver (which, in order to trick people is still called also colloidal), although the two do not have much in common.
For starters. to note that there is no such a more "magical" silver ion than other silver ion. The combination of silver ion (also called cation) and the corresponding ion (also called anion) modulates to a certain extent the properties of the silver compound.
There has never been and will never be a so-called free silver ion except for special states of matter (plasma).
So what's an ion? An ion is a part of a chemical compound that consists of two or more atoms of two or more elements. A picture for simplification: