What Makes Gold Plating Corrode?
Gold plating is applying a thin layer of gold to another surface. Because gold provides an electronically conductive, corrosion-resistant surface, it is commonly used to plate electronic connectors. The other common implementation of gold plating is to ornament jewelry.
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Definition
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Metal corrosion can be defined as the destruction of a metal due to environmental interactions. Metals we find in nature tend to be impure ores with low energy. By forging these ores into higher energy usable alloys, the metal's tendency is to gradually degrade back to the lower energy form. With its innately low energy, it is for this reason that, of all metals, gold has the least tendency to form simple compounds with oxygen.
Environment
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Low-carat gold jewelry can be affected by environmental corrosion. Conditions like chlorinated water, seawater or damp conditions like human perspiration or a humid atmosphere can lead to stress corrosion cracking (SCC).
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Other Metals
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Pure gold is extremely stable, but too soft for most uses. Combining it with other metals to form an alloy makes it harder, but more easily corroded. A common metal gold is combined with for gold plating is copper. In this case, anything that corrodes copper, such as salt or acid in human skin, would corrode the alloy.
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References
- Photo Credit Gold plated door pictures of Duomo Florance image by TekinT from Fotolia.com
