What Makes Gold Atoms Stick Together

Phys.org recently reported that researchers at UTS have solved the riddle of what makes gold special in today’s emerging field of nanotechnology.
According to the news:

Professor Jeffrey Reimers and Associate Professor Mike Ford, from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, led a team that explained the chemical bonding process that occurs during the growth of gold nanoparticles.

Professor Reimers commented:

Gold is unique because it doesn’t rust, corrode or tarnish, meaning that it generally doesn’t react with the things around it. That’s why it’s known as a ‘noble metal’.
The electrons in gold travel so fast they become heavy, an effect more important for gold than other atoms … so gold has the appearance of a metal, but with a strange colour and many more properties like those of non-metals such as sulphur.

Click here to view the full report.