yes for corrosion resistance and ductility. no for hardness, electrical and heat conductivity. you can’t use gold or its compounds as catalysts where copper makes sense
Comment on Gold
Zwiebel@feddit.org 3 weeks ago? Gold would be a big upgrade over copper
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
For what? Gold is a shit conductor compared to copper.
DrBob@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
It’s not shit, it’s top 3 behind silver and copper. But those oxidize and gold doesn’t. So a gold coated silver core is what you want.
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Gold coating for connectors is nice. For everything else it doesn’t really matter, you get an oxide layer that prevents further oxidation.
Zwiebel@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
I stand corrected. Idk why I thought it was a better conductor
rain_enjoyer@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
or you can use slightly thicker copper. but sometimes you can’t, and that’s when silver is a slight upgrade
i heard that microwave parts for satellite use are made this way: first you start with aluminum, for structural and weight reasons. then it’s plated on inside (where microwaves are) with thin layer of zinc, then with copper. you can’t plate copper on aluminum directly. copper is there to conduct microwave current, but silver is even better, so there’s a layer of silver to conduct most of it, and copper handles the rest. then it’s topped with gold, but it’s a very thin layer, so thin that it doesn’t conduct a lot of current. it’s there only for corrosion resistance
gnutrino@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
It has ~70% the conductivity of pure copper, it’s not “shit”
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
ricdeh@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Would it? Perhaps it wouldn’t oxidise as fast, but copper is more conductive.