79 Au Gold 196.97
Transition metal
Gold 金
[Xe] 4f¹⁴ 5d¹⁰ 6s¹
- Period 6
- Group 11
- Block d
- Solid
Electron configuration
1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 3d¹⁰ 4s² 4p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 4f¹⁴ 5s² 5p⁶ 5d¹⁰ 6s¹
Orbital diagram (valence)
5d ↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓↑↓
6s ↑
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 1
- Unpaired electrons
- 1
- Zeff (Slater)
- 3.70
Properties
- Atomic weight
- 196.97
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 2.54
- First ionization energy
- 890.2 kJ/mol
- Electron affinity
- 222.8 kJ/mol
- Covalent radius
- 136 pm
- van der Waals radius
- 166 pm
- Melting point
- 1337 K
- Boiling point
- 3129 K
- Density
- 19.28 g/cm³
- Melting / boiling point
- 1064.2 °C / 2855.8 °C
- Common oxidation states
- +3, +1
- Discovered
- Known since antiquity
Gold in the course
The lessons that discuss this element most (ranked by mentions).
- Density: an intensive property Matter and measurement
- Hydrogen and the s-block The main-group elements
- Metal carbonyls and the 18-electron rule Coordination chemistry
- Heat capacity of solids and third-law entropy Entropy and free energy
- Extracting metals Transition metals
- Trends across the d-block Transition metals
- Complexometric titration: EDTA and water hardness Titrimetric and gravimetric analysis
- Metals and bands: conductors, semiconductors and colour Crystals and solids
Lab experiments with Gold
Crystal structures
- Face-centred cubic (ccp) lattice parameter a = 407.8 pm
Periodic trend
Group 11
Data: PubChem periodic table (public domain); atomic weights are IUPAC abridged standard values; covalent radii from Cordero et al. (2008).