Gold has unique physical properties which render it indispensable for use in the industrial and medical sector. One of these properties is what makes it so valuable to the jewelry industry: it is practically indestructible. Gold neither rusts nor does it tarnish, as nearly all other precious metals, such as silver, sooner or later do. Although this property of gold has been valued for millennia, there has not been a reliable scientific explanation for the unique phenomenon until recently. Two scientists from Tulane University, New Orleans, have decoded gold’s ‘superpower’.
Why does gold react so little to oxygen?
For a long time, researchers thought that gold does not oxidize because its heavy gold nucleus binds its outer electrons particularly tightly. As the American Physical Society’s new online platform APS Journals reported in late May 2026, Matthew Montemore and Santu Biswas from Tulane University recently discovered through extensive testing that this is not the main reason for gold’s non-perishability. Rather, it does not tarnish because the face-centered cubic structure of the precious metal’s atomic lattice, scientifically designated AU (100), transforms on its surface into a hexagonal lattice structure, Au (110). This rearrangement of the surface atoms makes gold extremely resistant to oxygen, therefore preventing oxidation.
Important findings for optimizing gold catalysts
According to a recent article in German scientific magazine ‘Bild der Wissenschaft’, the recent findings on the surface structure of gold offer interesting potential for improvement of its catalytic function in the chemical industry. An important step in this direction would be finding a way to prevent gold from rearranging its surface atoms. The team in New Orleans will continue their work on this research.