Scientists create gold with plastic features

ETH Zurich researchers have created an incredibly lightweight 18-carat gold that weighs about five to ten times less than traditional 18-carat gold. Instead of a metal alloy element, they used protein fibers and a polymer latex to form a matrix in which they embedded thin discs of gold nanocrystals, ETH Zurich announces.

The lightweight gold contains countless tiny air pockets invisible to the eye, so its density is just 1.7 grams per cm3, instead of the usual 15 g/cm3.

– This gold has the material properties of a plastic – says Raffaele Mezzenga, the head of the project. If a piece of it falls onto a hard surface, it sounds like plastic. But it glimmers like metallic gold, and can be polished and worked into the desired form.

Mezzenga points out that, while the plastic gold will be in particular demand in the manufacture of watches and jewelry, it is also suitable for chemical catalysis, electronics applications or radiation shielding, ETH Zurich adds.

ETH Zurich

gold

plastic

Raffaele Mezzenga