Thread: Weight of gold chloride

Do metallic gold and gold chloride share the same weight? Say a chemist dissolved one ounce of pure gold in solution, then he or she recovered all the pure gold chloride from that solution. Would the gold chloride still weigh an ounce? Sorry in advance if this is a stupid question but I can't seem to find the answer with the internet.

The gold would still be one ounce if you recovered all of the gold from the solution.
If you recover it all as gold chlorides you have to add the weights of the chloride atoms that reacted with the gold to form the chloride. This means gold chloride is heavier than the gold by itself.

It depends a bit on which glod chloride. Gold can form at least three different chlorides: AuCl, Au₂Cl_{6, or} Au₄Cl₈​

Originally Posted by dan hunter

The gold would still be one ounce if you recovered all of the gold from the solution.
If you recover it all as gold chlorides you have to add the weights of the chloride atoms that reacted with the gold to form the chloride. This means gold chloride is heavier than the gold by itself.

It depends a bit on which glod chloride. Gold can form at least three different chlorides: AuCl, Au₂Cl_{6, or} Au₄Cl₈​

Or even HAuCl₄, the first product formed when gold is dissolved in aqua regia and which is sometimes referred to as gold chloride as well.

Gold chloride must be lighter than pure metalic gold by volumn. Some of the volumn will be taken up by chloride atoms which are far less dense than gold atoms.