Is It Possible To Destroy Gold?

Gold is a highly valuable metal for many reasons – not only is it beautiful when shaped into jewelry, but it has many important uses in industry.

Long ago, alchemists sought to create gold without success.

In modern times, we know that creating gold isn’t possible, but what about destroying it?

Gold can’t be destroyed unless you place it in a nuclear reactor. It can undergo various chemical reactions, but elemental gold is exceptionally stable and cannot be destroyed at a molecular level by any conventional methods.

This article will explore the properties of gold and discuss various ways one might try to destroy it.

In truth, it’s as difficult to destroy gold as it is to try and create it. Let’s get started!

Can Gold Be Smashed?

One of the first things you might try if you wanted to destroy a piece of gold is to take a big hammer and strike it with all your might, but this won’t work.

Gold is highly malleable, meaning it cannot be smashed. If you were to strike a piece of gold with a hammer, you would only deform and flatten it, and the gold would never crack.

You could beat gold with a hammer all day long, and it would never become smashed.

Gold can be pulverized to form gold foil, which has various uses, including as a decoration for food.

Due to its non-toxic nature, you can also eat gold, it won’t even be destroyed by your stomach acids and will pass through your digestive system intact.

Alloyed gold, like the kind used to make jewelry, may crack or shatter if it has a higher quantity of alloy metals.

Even if this happens, you could melt the jewelry down and recover the gold if you had the right equipment.

What Happens If You Burn Gold?

If you try to burn gold, it won’t become ash and will simply become a liquid or molten. In this state, you can mold the gold into your desired form, and then allow it to cool.

When exposed to extremely high temperatures, gold won’t lose its original color.

However, if the gold is impure and combined with other metals, these substances will cause it to darken as it burns.

Can You Burn Gold To Destroy It?

The next thing you might try if you want to destroy gold is to cast it in a fire.

This won’t work either, no matter how hot you make the fire.

Gold does not burn and cannot be destroyed by fire. At extremely high temperatures, it can melt, but it won’t be considered destroyed.

The temperatures required to melt and boil gold are extremely high.

You could melt gold at home using a propane flame, but even the hottest furnaces in the world are unable to reach temperatures high enough to boil gold and convert it into a gas state.

Trial by Fire

Gold melts at a temperature of 1,063°C (1,945°F) and boils at a temperature of 2,966°C (5,371°F) at standard atmospheric pressure.

An average wood fire reaches temperatures of around 600°C (1,112°F) which isn’t nearly hot enough even to melt gold.

Exposing gold to fire is a popular and reliable way of testing it and used by many pawn shop owners around the world.

Genuine gold will brighten when heated, whereas counterfeit or plated gold will go darker, or melt away to reveal the underlying metal.

Another method people have used to melt gold is by putting it in a powerful microwave.

Even microwave energy cannot destroy gold; it simply heats it up and will eventually melt it.

Don’t try this at home unless you have the right equipment – and also keep in mind that if you do this, you should never use the microwave to heat food up afterward.

What Is Gold’s Weakness?

As we have demonstrated thus far, gold is incredibly resilient and stable.

You’ll no doubt be wondering at this point if it has a proverbial Achilles heel.

Gold has a few weaknesses at a molecular level, but it can be dissolved in a strong acid known as Aqua Regia. It’s important to note that even this does not destroy gold and can be used to remove impurities.

Aqua Regia is a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid.

The liquid is extremely volatile and is only mixed in quantities appropriate for immediate use.

Interestingly, neither of these potent acids can damage gold on their own, and nitric acid is commonly used to test gold for purity.

How Aqua Regia Dissolves Gold

The combination of hydrochloric and nitric acid creates a unique reaction where gold is concerned.

The nitric acid frees up gold ions which bind to the ionic chlorine present in the hydrochloric acid to create a substance called chloroauric acid.

Again, the gold still hasn’t been destroyed – it can still be converted back into solid, pure gold.

This reaction also forms part of the gold plating process, which is useful in the industry (copper electronic components are often plated to protect them from oxidation).

Aqua regia is used to dissolve gold as a means of purifying it.

Dissolving gold by this means allows for impurities and other metals to be filtered out of the gold.

It is then converted back into its solid form, achieving a purity that is difficult to attain through other means of gold refining.

Nuclear Reactions

It should be clear at this point that gold cannot be destroyed through conventional methods.

However, things are a little different once we step into the realm of nuclear physics.

Scientists, like the alchemists before, have been fascinated by gold’s general resilience and have experimented with it with varying levels of success.

If you put gold in a nuclear reactor or particle accelerator, it will be bombarded with electrons.

These subatomic particles can destabilize the atomic structure of the gold, and it will be transmuted into an isotope of mercury.

Similarly, an intrepid scientist named Glenn Seaborg used particle bombardment to create gold from other elements.

However, the gold he created was radioactive, and not ideal for use as bullion or jewelry.

Even though gold can be destroyed through nuclear reactions, it’s indestructible for all intents and purposes.

Even through nuclear means, it is incredibly difficult to destroy gold.

Gold cannot be created or destroyed through any conventional methods.

Its only weaknesses are aqua regia – which dissolves gold rather than destroying it – and nuclear reactions.

If you try to burn gold, it will simply melt, and you can then shape it into your desired form.

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