Alloyed gold has many properties as it is a mixture of metals which makes an alloyed metal more stronger because of the strong bonds, it is not that malleable as metals like silver, copper, zinc changes the features of the gold.
Gold Alloying
Table 1
Graph 1
The trend in the graph shows that the more the gold has in the carats the more denser it will become.
Gold Alloying
Table 2
Graph 2
As you learn from the graph that the atoms in the 23.5 carat gold, are the hardest to slide over each other.
Table 3
There are two types of 9 Carat Gold:
Pie Chart 1
The 9 carat yellow gold has 37.5% of gold, 10 of silver, 45% of copper and 7.5% of zinc which is why this gold is the lightest, but it not featured as people buy jewellery which have more gold.
Pie Chart 2
The 9 carat white gold has 37.8% of gold, 40% of copper, 10.4% of zinc and 11.8% of nickel, people often buy this type of gold because of it colour, but more expensive.
There are two types of 14 Carat Gold:
Pie Chart 3
The 14 carat yellow has 58.5 % of gold, 4% of silver, 31.2% of copper and 6.3% of zinc, this type is more often bought than the 9 carat, but it is heavier than 9 carat.
Pie Chart 4
The 14 carat has 58.5% of gold, 27% of copper, 7% of zinc and 7% of nickel, this type of gold is more denser and is less frequently sold.
There are two types 18 Carat Gold:
Pie Chart 5
Pie Chart 6
Pie Chart 7
Pie Chart 8
100% gold has absolutely no other mxture of metal that is why it is also called pure gold.
Conclusion
Advantages of gold alloys:
- Alloys are much lighter than a metal, so that it is lighter when wearing a piece of jewellery.
- It is stronger as they have gaps between the atoms to stop them from sliding over reach other; this stops them from being soft.
- It is much cheaper than a metal
- It maintains it shape, does not bend out of shape easily
- Different coloured alloys
- Does not rust with the oxygen in the air.
- Does not tarnish
- Gold alloys can easily be melted and so can be refashioned (reshaped).
Disadvantages of gold alloys:
- Gold alloys are not pure gold, so people who buy gold (alloys) feel as though they have bought pure gold, but in fact are deceived.
- Not as marketable
- Nickel (alloys) causes health problems
- The process is cost effective, a lot of money is needed to make an alloy
- It also takes up a lot of energy causing problems to the environment
In society today some people agree that alloys are becoming more and more popular because jewellery today is much more affordable and low priced. The jewellery industry has also risen with its profits in the selling of their products; this is because gold alloy used to make jewellery is much lighter and thinner. This makes the item less heavy to wear; the result of a product being alloyed will make the jewellery piece wearable for years, without any rusting or tarnishing. A gold alloy is stronger than pure gold; this means that it is less likely to break when wearing it again and again.
There are some disadvantages regarding the use if an alloy, their processing releases harmful gases into the atmosphere contributing to global warming. This is due to the burning of fossils fuels being burnt into the atmosphere to make an alloy, the heat is used to create shape to the alloy. Another disadvantage of using gold alloys is that it can give an allergic reaction to some people who wear the jewellery. The most life threatening type of alloy that can affect a person is nickel. Nickel can reduce the sale prices in the jewellery industry as people can be affected by the reaction of it. Nickel is dangerous to wear and can severely damage the wearer; it is a risk as people could be sued for the lies and for selling such dangerous products. As jewellery has become cheaper, people question as to whether an item is actually pure gold. For example 9 carat gold is 37.5% gold, this is even less than 50%, if a person was to buy this item they are being deceived as they are not given what they believe they have been given. 24 carat gold is the only pure gold that exists, if a company was to sell a 24 carat gold then a person would not be deceived.
Some ways of research was the internet; I used this to research about the differences between gold and alloys. The internet is a good way of research as I found out information on the different gold alloys; I also researched the advantages and disadvantages of the gold alloys. The internet can also be an unreliable source of research as the information from the websites could have been made up or biased, this affects that the data that I researched may not be true. As the internet is worldwide people from all over the world could make a website and add information of false matters, the people who use the information from the websites may gather false information. Websites also tend to be biased. Websites that are made can be information from only one side. This could make my research unreliable and inaccurate.
Another issue with using the internet could be that the data could be over dated, meaning that the information on the websites maybe b over a long period of time. Scientists discover new things every day, scientists could find a new source of new information, this information is really old and people should find the new and latest information that scientists have found out. This means that the information I have researched may have not been changed or updated.
The website which I used a lot during this was www.24carat.co.uk. This website could be biased as it sells jewellery, the jewellery sold may not be real as they say that some of their gold is pure but this cannot always be true. Some alloys use less than 50% of real gold in their jewellery. This is lying to the public and to those who buy products from this website.
To improve this situation I could use more other sources to make my information more reliable. To make my data more reliable I could repeat the investigation and use websites of which information is honest and not biased.
References
24carat.co.uk
Google.co.uk
En.wikipedia.org
Images.google.co.uk
