Au
aurum
)and anatomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage,
jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs asnuggetsor grains in rocks, in veinsand in alluvial deposits. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and
the mostmalleableandductilepure metal known. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and
luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. It is one of thecoinage metalsand formed the basis for thegold standardused
before the collapse of theBretton Woods systemin 1971.At the end of 2006, it was estimated that all the gold ever mined totaled 158,000 tonnes.
This can be represented by a cube with an edge length of just 20.2 meters. Modernindustrial uses includedentistry andelectronics, where gold has traditionally found use
because of its good resistance tooxidativecorrosion and excellent quality as a conductor of electricity.Chemically, gold is atransition metaland can formtrivalent and univalent cations upon
solvation. Compared with other metals, pure gold is more chemically unreactive, but it isattacked byaqua regia(a mixture of acids), forming chloroauric acid,and by alkaline
solutions of cyanidebut not by single acids such as hydrochloric,nitric or sulfuric acids.
Gold dissolves in mercury, formingamalgamalloys, but does not react with it. Since gold
is insoluble in nitric acidwhich will dissolve silver and base metals, this is exploited as
the basis of the goldrefiningtechnique known as "inquartation and parting". Nitric acidhas long been used to confirm the presence of gold in items, and this is the origin of thecolloquial term "acid test", referring to a
gold standard
test for genuine value.
Characteristics
Native gold nuggets
Gold nuggets found in ArizonaGold is the mostmalleableandductileof all metals; a singlegramcan be beaten into a
sheet of 1 square meter, or an ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be beaten thin
enough to become translucent. The transmitted light appears greenish blue, because goldstrongly reflects yellow and red.
Such semi-transparent sheets also strongly reflectinfra-red, making them useful as infrared (radiant heat) shields in visors of heat-resistantsuits, and in sun-visors for spacesuits.
Gold readily creates alloys with many other metals. These alloys can be produced tomodify the hardness and other metallurgical properties, to controlmelting point or to
create exotic colors (see below). Gold is a good conductor of heat and electricityand
reflectsinfra red radiation strongly. Chemically, it is unaffected byair , moistureand most
corrosive reagents, and is therefore well-suited for use incoins and jewelryand as a
protective coating on other, more reactive, metals. However, it is not chemically inert.Freehalogenswill react with gold, andaqua regiadissolves it via formation of chlorine
gaswhich attacks gold to form the chloraurate ion. Gold also dissolves in alkalinesolutions of potassium cyanide and in mercury, forming a gold-mercuryamalgam.
Commonoxidation statesof gold include +1 (gold(I) or aurous compounds) and +3(gold(III) or auric compounds). Gold ions in solution are readily reducedand precipitated
out as gold metal by adding any other metal as thereducing agent.The added metal is
oxidized and dissolves allowing the gold to be displaced from solution and be recoveredas a solid precipitate.High quality pure metallic gold is tasteless; in keeping with its resistance to corrosion (itis metal ions which confer taste to metals).In addition, gold is very dense, a cubic meter weighing 19300 kg. By comparison, the
density of leadis 11340 kg/m³, and that of the densest element,osmium, is 22610 kg/m³.
Isotopes
197
Au, which is also its only naturally-occurring isotope.36radioisotopeshave been synthesized ranging inatomic massfrom 169 to 205. The
most stable of these is
195
195
171
Au, which decays by protonemissionwith a half-life of 30 µs. Most of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses below197 decay by some combination of proton emission, α decay, andβ+ decay. The
exceptions are
195
Au, which decays by electron capture, and
196
Au, which has a minor β-decaypath. All of gold's radioisotopes with atomic masses above 197 decay by β- decay.
At least 32nuclear isomershave also been characterized, ranging in atomic mass from170 to 200. Within that range, only
178
Au,
180
Au,
181
Au,
182
Au, and
188
Au do not haveisomers. Gold's most stable isomer is
198 m2
Au with a half-life of 2.27 days. Gold's leaststable isomer is
177 m2
Au with a half-life of only 7 ns.
184 m1
Au has three decay paths: β+decay,isomeric transition, and alpha decay. No other isomer or isotope of gold has threedecay paths.
Color of gold
Different colors of Ag-Au-Cu alloysThe color of pure gold is metallic yellow. Gold,caesiumandcopper are the onlymetallic
elementswith a natural color other than gray or white. The usual gray color of metalsdepends on their "electronsea" that is capable of absorbing and re-emitting photonsover
a wide range of frequencies. Gold reacts differently, depending on subtlerelativisticeffectsthat affect theorbitalsaround gold atoms.
Commoncolored goldalloys such as rose gold can be created by the addition of variousamounts of copper and silver, as indicated in the triangular diagram on the right. Alloyscontaining palladium or nickel are also important in commercial jewelry as these producewhite gold alloys. Less commonly, addition of manganese, aluminium, iron,indiumand
other elements can produce more unusual colors of gold for various applications.
Applications
As the metal
Medium of monetary exchange
Main article:Gold standard
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Gold (Pronounced /ˈɡoʊld/) is a Chemical Element With the Symbol
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