2006-09-30 11:02:09 · 12 answers · asked by ramchand_l 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Chemistry
My guess is it would take several orders of magnitide longer than the age of the universe.
The hypothetical reaction would be:
Au + 3H2O -> 3/2 H2 + Au(3+) + 3OH-
This has an electrochemical potential of -1.498 V i.e. it is strongly disfavoured, and the reverse reaction is favoured (i.e. hydrogen will react with Au(3+) to give gold and H+).
However, it should be noted that this, like all redox reactions is an equilibrium. In other words, both the forward and backward reactions do take place, though in this case the reverse reaction is very rapid, and the forward reaction hardly takes place at all. Some free energy calculations (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbs_free_energy for details) show the equilibrium constant to be around 10^-76. In other words, if you had 10^76 gold atoms all in contact with water, you'd expect at any one time you would have a grand total of ONE Au(3+) ion. To put this in perspective, you would need to have 3x10^51 kg of gold in contact with water to have one Au(3+) ion present - this is about 100 million times the mass of the Milky Way galaxy. So it is incredibly rare for a gold atom to be oxidised by water, and if this does happen, if the gold ion comes into contact with hydrogen it will likely be rapidly reduced back to gold. However, as hydrogen is a volatile gas, some of the hydrogen produced from the rare reaction of gold with water will escape, preventing it from re-reacting with the gold. So over time, you would have gold being oxidised by water (assuming an atmosphere free of reducing agents, which would convert the Au(3+) back to Au), but the amount of time it would take would be so astronomical that for all intents and purposes we would consider that gold is not oxidised by water.
2006-10-01 04:04:33 · answer #1 · answered by pyrovus 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Forever, basically. You won't be able to dissolve gold in pure water. There are only a handful of compounds out there that will dissolve gold. The most known one is called "aqua regia" which is a half-and-half mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid.
And no, Coca-Cola will not dissolve gold either.
2006-09-30 18:19:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gold will not dissolve in fresh or salt water. One of the properties of gold that makes it valuable is it's resistance to corrosion and deterioration.
2006-09-30 18:04:06 · answer #3 · answered by ©2009 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gold will not dissolve in water.
2006-09-30 18:04:26 · answer #4 · answered by My Evil Twin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
within seconds if u either melt the gold or produce aqua regia in water(aqua regia is a complex mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid inthe ratio 2:1)
2006-09-30 23:37:08 · answer #5 · answered by kichu 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Infinity
2006-09-30 19:05:22 · answer #6 · answered by Infinity 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mercury will dissolve gold, water will not.
2006-09-30 18:32:31 · answer #7 · answered by davidosterberg1 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
theres no way to think about this as never get a wounderful chance to see this happening
2006-10-04 01:28:03 · answer #8 · answered by madhavi l 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
About forever.
2006-09-30 18:03:33 · answer #9 · answered by Liwayway 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You won't live that long!
2006-10-04 15:45:54 · answer #10 · answered by yupchagee 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋