NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Gold chalcogenides

Gold chalcogenides are gold compounds with anions from periodic table group 16, known as the chalcogens. Gold chalcogenides often appear as minerals. Gold chalcogenides have stability that is reversed from typical chalcogenides. For gold, the tellurides are the most stable, while the sulfide and oxide are metastable. For most other metals, it is the other way around.

Contents

1 Gold tellurides

2 Gold selenides

3 Gold sulfides

4 See also

Gold tellurides

AuTe₂ is present as a number of minerals, the most common being calaverite. Calaverite is the most important source of gold after native gold.

Gold selenides

AuSe exists in two forms, AuSe and Au₂Se₃.

Gold sulfides

Au₂S is metastable, but mixed silver-gold sulfides like AgAuS do exist.

No studies of gold polonides have been conducted yet, as polonium is very rare in nature.

Gold (1834 words)
	Gold is used as a monetary standard for many nations and is also used in jewelry, dentistry, and in electronics.
	The color of solid gold as well as of the intensely colored, often purple, colloidal solutions that can be made from it is caused by the fact that the plasmon frequency of this element lies in the visible range, which causes red and yellow light to be reflected and blue light to be absorbed.
	Gold is widely distributed, is very often associated with the minerals quartz or pyrite and is combined with tellurium in the minerals petzite, calaverite and sylvanite.

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