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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">I am very unschooled in these matters, but I was thinking that maybe a<br>strong acid could bore its way through the gold, causing a chemical change
<br>as it went along??<br><br>KT,<br>MYG</blockquote></div></div>
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<div>A strong acid would just dissolve the gold into a salty solution. By salt I don't mean table salt, but rather salt in the sense of a metal and nonmetal ionically bonded.</div>
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<div>For example:</div>
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<div>Sulfuric acid + gold</div>
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<div>H2SO4(aq = water) + 2Au</div>
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<div>H2SO4(s = solid) + H2O + 2Au</div>
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<div>SO4 (-2 charge) + 2H(+1 charge) + H2O + 2Au</div>
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<div>SO4 (-2) + H2 (gas) + H2O + 2Au(+2 charge)</div>
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<div>Au2So4 (aq) + H2 (gas)</div>
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<div>You end up with a solution of dissolved gold sulfate salt and hydrogen gas. Thanks to first year college chemistry and a refresher from the Wikipedia article on acid. Chemistry is some fascinating stuff, I'll tell you what. I used to my chemistry to determine that you can easily detarnish silver using a bucket of water lined with aluminum foil - basic electrochemistry: the aluminum will donate electrons to the silver sulfide tarnish (I needed a household metal higher on the activity series than silver, and aluminum fits the bill nicely, but lead, iron, and copper would also work, but lead would be a health hazard), creating pure silver and aluminum sulfide - you've created a battery! Then, you just need some baking soda (base) to prevent the formation of hydrogen sulfide gunk (via an acid-base reaction). Connect the silver and aluminum to create an electrical contact, and wait many many hours!
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<div>Mikha'el Makovi</div>