I’ve often wondered what characteristics steel takes on when alloyed with gold. Someone must have tried it at some point.
Silver is common enough and surely that’s been tried, but what does that do? Copper is semi-precious and that is used commonly to increase corrosion resistance and is right above silver (and gold below that) on the periodic table so I assume it would give corrosion resistance also. Is that right?
Are there any uses for gold steel alloys?
What about platinum or other metals uncommonly found in steel?
Would it be possible to alloy plutonium with steel?
Pretty much there are two conditions for an alloy to form…
The temperature of melting is not too much different.If there is a big difference, the molten liquid metal of one is so hot it burns away the 2nd one…
The atom size is about the same, if it is not then it does not satisfactory substitute in the lattice, it would take energy to make them mix, and then metals become solid and the mixing stops…It would be more of a composite, like mixing grains of sand with grains of limestone.
Oxidisation protection requires that the surface layer oxides to form an impermeable layer… Gold is not going to mix with iron, but if it did, it would not convey its magical no rust property… it doesn’t rust itself… The rust protection comes from the oxidised layer ! eg CuO sitting there as a solid stuck to the metal … so the metal is protected from H2O and O2.
There is a type of low-carbon maraging steel that uses copper as a precipitation hardening element, I’d expect gold might work similarly. Seems doubtful it would be particularly beneficial though, especially considering the extreme expense.
‘Burn’ might not be the right word, but if the melting point of metal A exceeds the boiling point of metal B, then metal B is going to tend to evaporate away. (I suspect this could be quite dangerous - a bit like what happens when you add water to boiling oil)
FWIW I think “Reardon metal”, part of the plot of the book “Atlas Shrugged”, was a copper steel alloy. Supposedly it was silvery green and didn’t rust or corrode.
Gold and iron do not mix well. As the alloy solidifies, they separate and you get a mix of gold and iron grains. Given that gold is a great catalyst, it would speed up the corrosion of the iron. The same applies to copper and silver.
Some small amount can be forced in. Its probably interstitial, inside gaps in the crystal or outside grains.
A test of true miscibility is the Gibbs Free energy of mixing.
Other things such as atom size and electron configuration can get some which fail that test to make an alloy … small % alloy doesn’t really count, 40/60 would…
I am no chemist or metallurgist but it was my understanding-
Steel is useful because it keeps an edge, resists corrosion reasonably well, and is strong for its weight.
Gold is very soft and heavy for a metal. I’ve read (and now I finally have a chance to ask if it’s true) that a small lump of pure gold can be molded by hand.
If you want to make gold stronger, there are already alloys for that (afaik with copper). Even if you could alloy gold and steel, it seems to me you’d just end up with a material heavier and softer than steel.
NOTE- In the likely event I am wrong in any of my assumptions, please correct me.
Gold-Iron alloys do exist, and are used in things like thermocouples. If you’ve ever heard of “blue gold” or “grey gold”, those are gold-iron alloys. I don’t know of any gold-steel alloys, though (and, of course, steel is itself an alloy).