Hot compression deformation behavior and microstructural characteristics of high-purity silver

• Hot compression of high-purity silver was systematically investigated using a Gleeble-3800 thermal simulator across strain rates of 0.001–10 s⁻¹ and temperatures of 250–400 °C. • An Arrhenius constitutive equation and processing maps were developed to predict deformation behavior and optimize hot working parameters. • Plastic instability occurs at high strain rates, while the optimal processing window is a strain rate below 0.001 s⁻¹ and a temperature range of 340–400 °C. • Dynamic recovery dominates at lower temperatures (e.g., 250 °C) due to low stacking fault energy, while dynamic recrystallization becomes pronounced with increasing temperature and saturates at 350 °C.