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Why does gold resist chemical change?
I have read somewhere that gold resists chemical change. Is it the only mineral capable of doing so? Is that the main reason why gold is expensive?
gold's surface structure provides little freedom for bonding. Molecules hold only loosely onto the metal and fail to form long-lasting molecular or electronic attachments. Consequently, even reactive molecules tend to slide away without bonding or affecting gold's chemically unreactive surface, the researchers report in the July 20 Nature.
"The unique role that gold plays in society is to a large extent related to the fact that it is the most noble [unreactive] of all metals," the scientists state. "It is the least reactive metal towards atoms or molecules at the interface with a gas or a liquid." Yet gold's inertness "does not reflect a general inability to form chemical bonds," since it does form stable alloys with other metals.
The physicists examined the way hydrogen molecules (H2) dissociate, or break loose, at gold's surface. They measured, for instance, the energy necessary for chemical adsorption and the height of activation barriers, which determine how much energy is needed to prompt a reaction.
In their experiments, they distinguished between gold atoms' ability to break and form bonds and the ease with which they form new compounds, such as gold oxides. The two qualities are related: To make a compound, gold atoms must bond with other atoms, yet they cannot do so until they have sundered their bonds with neighboring gold atoms.
As a result, the scientists find that gold's nonreactivity rests on the inability of molecules adequately to fill gaps in the orbits of a gold atom's electrons.
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pretty much
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scarcity is the other factor
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