What is gold used for besides jewelry

what can gold be used for

Have you ever asked yourself a question, what is gold used for in everyday life? Gold since ancient times has ensured the function of an element of the world financial system. Products from gold and ingots today serve as the most important objects for investing money.

The use of gold is not limited to investment. In the modern world, gold has found wide application in various industries. This noble metal is used in jewelry plants for making jewelry, in crowns and dentures, electrical contacts, also gold is contained in some medicines.

What has gold been used for in the past

So, what is gold and what is it used for in ancient time? Gold is soft and yellow noble metal not interacting with most acids and consisting of a stable isotope. Gold was known to mankind since the very old times.

A number of archaeological excavations relating to the earliest periods of history, such as the excavation of some of the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs of the first dynasties, found a considerable number of objects, sometimes very large, what was gold used for.

In those ancient times, gold was mined in the most primitive way and, of course, only from the richest and most accessible deposits. Such deposits, which were developed in ancient times, were known in various locations in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

What can gold be used for

The value of the yellow metal for industrial production is due to its special properties: ductility and pliability. Due to these qualities, a micron wire or an ultra-thin sheet of foil can be made from the raw material. Metal has become widely used as a welding material in the production of the newest models of technology, the production of thermocouples, galvanometer parts. In terms of its chemical and mechanical stability, gold lags behind most platinoid representatives but is indispensable as a raw material for electrical contacts. In the field of microelectronics, what is the gold used for too, both gold conductors and the galvanic gold coating of individual surfaces, boards and connectors are widely used.

How and where is gold used

gold used in technologyThe list of uses for gold in modern industry.

  • Transport industry.
  • Chemistry and petrochemical production.
  • Power engineering.
  • Electronics and production of measuring instruments.
  • Telecommunications.
  • Nanotechnology.
  • Aviation and space industry.

The metal is used as a solder when soldering metals, as it well wets the working surfaces. Gold is indispensable in the defense industry: it makes nuclear research targets, is used as a coating for mirrors designed to work in the far infrared range, is used for the shell of a neutron bomb. The galvanic gilding of metals allows to exclude corrosion processes, and thin plates from soft alloys of gold are important in the field of studies of ultrahigh vacuum. Additionally, invest in gold companies is an excellent tool that allows investors to get a stable profit.

Modern uses for gold

Besides, gold used in technology for the aerospace industry. It is used where there is a need to prevent corrosion: the connection of aircraft engine parts, the places of sealing electrical contacts, and the gold film coating of shuttle windows.

The reason why is gold used in electronics is a wide range of useful properties. It should be noted that in electronics 90% gold is used in the form of coatings.

Electronics and related engineering industries are the main consumers of gold that’s why is gold used in computers. In this area, gold is widely used for joining integrated circuits by pressure welding or ultrasonic welding, contacts of plug connectors, as thin wire conductors, for soldering of transistor elements and other purposes.

Pharmacology remains one of the most important medical uses of gold. Metal compounds are a component of some drugs that are used in the treatment of arthritis, malignant tumors, tuberculosis.

Why is gold used as currency

Using gold as currency in past happened because its properties maximally contribute to the performance of the function of money. Such properties are rare, safety, portability, economic divisibility, uniformity stability.