Some chemicals, especially chlorine and bleach, are corrosive to gold jewelry. So if you have noticed that your gold ring, bracelet, or anklet is showing considerable wear, bleach or chlorine damage may be at play.
We were reminded this earlier in February that many people aren't aware of the damage bleach and chlorine can cause to gold. Both cause a chemical reaction that disintegrates the alloys in the jewelry over time. (Nearly all gold jewelry is alloyed, because pure gold is too soft on its own.)
Chlorine is Public Enemy #1 for Gold:
The chlorine began to react with the alloys in the ring almost immediately, creating a wash of bubbles that surrounded the ring. Within three days, the 14k gold ring had completely dissolved in the solution of chlorine bleach.
- Soap and water work wonders on gold (sans any gemstones).
Chlorine can damage and discolor metals (like gold and platinum) and can slowly erode the finish and polish of gemstones. Before playing in the sand (or gardening.)
Some chemicals, especially chlorine and bleach, are corrosive to gold jewelry. So if you have noticed that your gold ring, bracelet, or anklet is showing considerable wear, bleach or chlorine damage may be at play.
Vinegar is incredibly corrosive. So, if your gold jewelry is made of a different metal or alloy, the vinegar will cause it to tarnish. Gold is a non-reactive metal, so it will not react to vinegar.
Because gold is a soft metal, it is easily scratched even with a light abrasive like baking soda.
Gold is one of the noblest—that is, least chemically reactive—of the transition elements. It is not attacked by oxygen or sulfur, although it will react readily with halogens or with solutions containing or generating chlorine, such as aqua regia.
Aqua regia is a fuming liquid. Freshly prepared aqua regia is colorless, but it turns yellow, orange or red within seconds from the formation of nitrosyl chloride and nitrogen dioxide. It was named by alchemists because it can dissolve the noble metals gold and platinum, though not all metals.
The results show that at high pH (>12), the gold dissolution rate increases significantly in solutions containing caustic soda and cyanide at zero, or very low free cyanide concentration.
Bleach is the chemical compound sodium hypochlorite. When combined with hydrochloric acid, the mixture produces chlorine that dissolves gold from gold ore.
It's not just chlorine that can damage your gold jewellery and diamonds; saltwater can damage them too. Salt causes erosion of soldered gold, silver or platinum elements. As a result, the precious metal may weaken meaning your jewellery could potentially break. The diamonds can also get blemished by salt.
Hydrogen peroxide is suitable to clean gold (yellow gold, white gold, rose gold), platinum as well as silver jewelry. Hydrogen peroxide will act as a boosting agent to get rid of the muck and grime embedded into your jewelry.
Test Gold Using the Float Test
Take a cup or glass, fill it up with water, now bring the gold that you want to test. Drop it into this filled glass. If the gold floats, it is surely not real but if the gold sinks to the end of the glass then it is pure gold. The real gold will sink due to being a heavy metal.
The apple cider vinegar gold test is a great choice if you want to test your jewelry at home, as it is readily available and easy to do. After all, real gold will not react when exposed to the acids in vinegar, toothpaste and more.
Gold does not react with most chemicals but is attacked by chlorine, fluorine, aqua regia and cyanide and dissolves in mercury. In particular, gold is insoluble in nitric acid, which will dissolve most other metals.
Aqua regia is used to dissolve gold. Neither nitric acid or hydrochloric acid can do this alone. Nitric acid will act as the oxidizer and is used to form gold ions (Au3+).
What to do: Hold the magnet up to the gold. If it's real gold it will not stick to the magnet. (Fun fact: Real gold is not magnetic.) Fake gold, on the other hand, will stick to the magnet.
Does Coke Clean Gold? This is a handy and maybe unexpected tip, but Coke does indeed clean gold. You can dip your gold in a small bowl of Coke and make sure that it is completely covered. Leave the gold plated jewelry in the solution for 10 minutes and then rub with a soft cloth and rinse.
Toothpaste is abrasive and has a hardness of around 3/4 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness. Metals such as gold and silver are softer, so toothpaste can actually scratch damage your gold and silver jewellery. Not to mention, the chemicals in the flavour oils used in toothpaste are corrosive to metal.
Lemon juice has no effect on solid gold. However, it is too abrasive for gold-plated jewelry. It may also damage lower gold karats, which contain significant amounts of metals for durability. Prolonged exposure can cause discoloration or severe damage.
The most useful and important vehicle for dissolving gold is aqua regia, (royal water), composed of two parts of hydrochloric (muriatic) acid, and one part of nitric (aquafortis).
Because of gold jewelry's high chance of tarnish*, there are a couple specific substances to avoid: Soap – Steer clear of any soap with unknown ingredients. Basic blue Dawn dish soap is fine, but remove your gold jewelry before showering to avoid accumulating a film from other body washes.
We know gold is a noble metal and it lies below hydrogen in the reactivity series and thus it is unreactive towards acids. We can understand from the above discussion that gold metal does not react with acids.