How is gold used in your daily life?

Answer 1

I thought gold was only used for making jewellery and in gold bars and coins?

Not at all. Over 400 tonnes of gold is used in a diverse range of industrial applications each year, accounting for over 10% of annual gold demand. A number of different industries manufacture an array of gold-based materials, components and chemicals that help produce, or are part of, thousands of products. These products significantly improve our everyday life and safety, and the competitiveness of scores of industries.

What sort of everyday products contain gold?

Almost all electronic consumer items like mobile phones, computers, and flat screen televisions contain a small amount of gold, which is critical to the reliable and efficient functioning of the equipment. The chips and contacts found in a car's ABS system all contain gold, as does the electronics controlling the inflation of car airbags in the event of a crash.

Smoke detectors, routinely used in millions of households to protect against fire, contain a gold alloy placed between layers of another metal. Gold is used in brazing alloys used to join certain components in aero engines and in some medical implants gold is the metal of choice. It's fair to say that without the use of gold in all these products, they would be much less efficient and reliable than they are now.

Why is gold used in electronics when it is expensive compared to other metals like copper and silver?

There are some electronic components that quite simply have to be made from gold because of its unique combination of properties. Gold has excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, so it makes efficient wires and contacts in electronics, transporting electrical signals efficiently and conducting heat away from critical components. With its high corrosion resistance, the gold found in electronic contacts remains free from tarnish or oxidation. This ensures that reliable electrical connections can be made, even after thousands of operations.

As well as electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance, what other properties of gold are useful?

Gold, like other important metals, has some unique physical, chemical, and optical attributes that mean it is the best material for a certain application. For example, gold is very ductile and for some electronic components like bonding wires, the ability to draw gold alloys into extremely thin diameters without breaking is a critical property in the manufacturing process.

Gold is also extremely malleable, so in the annealed state it can be hammered cold into a translucent wafer 0.000013 cm thick. One ounce of gold can be beaten into a sheet covering over 9 square metres and 0.000018 cm thick. Bulk gold has a familiar yellow colour of course. However, when particles of gold are small enough their colour is actually ruby red.

This effect has been used to colour glass red, even in Roman times, but if such tiny particles are allowed to coalesce in a controlled fashion, their colour can be varied from pink through violet to blue. This unique property has been used as a colorimetric indicator in home pregnancy tests.

Is gold still used in dentistry?

Yes, around 60 tonnes of gold is used every year in dental restorations like bridges and crowns. Gold is the oldest dental restorative material, having been used for dental repairs for more than 4000 years and is considered by many experts to be the best available material. Gold-alloys used in dental work are proven to be durable and long-lasting.

Most importantly gold has excellent biocompatibility (it is non-toxic), so allergic reactions to a gold-based dental implant are extremely rare. It is interesting to note that in many countries if practising dentists are asked what type of material for a restoration they prefer for themselves, with few exceptions the answer is a gold alloy.

Are there likely to be new practical uses for gold discovered in the coming years?

Almost certainly. There is a very active network of university researchers studying the advanced scientific properties of gold, supported by the gold mining industry. The last international gathering of these researchers attracted over 350 delegates from over 40 countries. See www.gold2009.org and http://www.goldbulletin.org/assets/file/goldbulletin/downloads/Gold_2009_3_42.pdf Preparations for the 2012 event is underway. Scientists are looking at how gold can be used effectively for a diverse range of new applications including advanced electronics, fuel cells, cancer treatments, and chemical catalysts. In the last 10 years over 39,000 patent applications were published relating to the technical use of gold in practical applications, so new uses for gold will soon emerge based on these patented technologies.

What is a chemical catalyst and how might gold be used as one?

A catalyst is a substance that is added to a chemical process to speed up the rate at which the process occurs. Metal catalysts are used extensively by industry to make chemical plants more efficient. For a number of years gold has been used as a catalyst in the large-scale production of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).

This is an important industrial chemical used as a feedstock for paints and adhesives. Applications for gold catalysts are now being developed in a number of new areas including other chemical manufacturing processes, air cleaning (eg removal of smells and poisonous carbon monoxide from indoor environments) and for controlling mercury emissions from coal-fired power stations.

The reason that gold is interesting as a catalyst is that it generally allows the chemical process to take place at lower temperatures, thereby reducing energy costs.

Is gold used like platinum in automotive catalytic convertors, for controlling exhaust emissions or in fuel cells?

It has recently been shown that with catalysts that use gold in combination with platinum and palladium, emissions from diesel engines can be reduced by up to 40%. World Gold Council is supporting the development of this technology through its partnership with the technology inventor, Nanostellar Inc. www.nanostellar.com. In addition, a number of companies have patented technologies based on the use of gold for cleaning impurity gases from hydrogen used to power fuel cells. Impurities like carbon monoxide reduce the efficiency of the fuel cell and it maybe that the use of gold in this application helps fuel cells to become more efficient and commercially viable.

I'm aware that platinum compounds are used as cancer treatments. Is gold or its compounds used in any medical treatments?

Yes gold is used in the treatment of prostate cancer. Using small grains of gold (about the size of a grain of rice), doctors can accurately identify the position of the patient's prostate during treatment. The claims for the medical benefits of gold date back thousands of years. Many Eastern cultures have traditionally used gold-based medicinal preparations in the treatment of ailments such as smallpox, skin ulcers and measles. Gold has been used for years to successfully treat rheumatoid arthritis. The gold compound is administered by injection or tablet and works to not only decrease the pain and swelling of Arthritis, but may also prevent joint damage and disability. As well as these established applications, trials are currently underway to develop the use of gold in the treatment of HIV and malaria.

Can the gold used in industrial applications be recycled?

Yes, there is no technical reason why gold used in industrial applications cannot be recycled and re-used. Gold can be reprocessed without this impairing its qualities or performance. In the electronics industry for example, there is a growing market for old recycled computer chips and circuit boards.

These are collected in order to extract the valuable metals like gold contained in them. In this way, gold may be re-used again and again, conserving Natural Resources.

Answer 2

The majority of all gold is used for decorative purposes in jewelry, but it does have other uses. It is very useful in dentistry, for making gold crowns, and it is used to make very thin wires for use in highly miniaturized electronics. The modern cell phone, believe it or not, contains some gold.

Answer 3

First, gold is used in a wide scope of equipments and electronic products like appliances, computers, gadgets and mobile phones. This is because gold is very malleable and it conducts electricity.

Second is medical use. Gold is primarily used to treat some illnesses and diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, liver, ear and eye diseases. Gold is classified into a group of drugs that has been believed to be an effective remedy for the swollen joints.

Lastly, gold is used as attractive and beautiful decorations in all sorts of context. For example, pens, watch cases, costume jewelery and frames. The most outstanding decorative gold is the gold leaf which has been used as ceilings of buildings.

Answer 4

gold is used in jewelry love me! What else?

Answer 5

People with a lot of money use gold for house hold items.

Answer 6

Gold is made of gold......gold is an element. Gold isn't made of anything but gold.

Answer 7

jewellery

Answer 8

In dentistry .