Chinese scientists have learned to make a substance out of copper that is chemically very similar to gold.
The result was practically the same "transmutation" of copper into gold, which every alchemist dreamed of in the Middle Ages.
This scientific achievement is reported by Science Advances.
The researchers found that if copper atoms are exposed to argon plasma, the structure of the element changes and copper atoms cease to interact with carbon monoxide and oxygen, that is, they begin to behave like noble metals do.
The discovery was made by a team of scientists from the Institute of Chemical Physics of the CAS in Dalian under the leadership of Dr. Jian Song. According to scientists, this achievement will allow replacing gold with copper in chemical catalysts.
Scientists have been trying for a long time to find a replacement for expensive and difficult to obtain gold among the more common and cheap elements. However, neither chemists nor other specialists have been able to do this until now.
Sun and his colleagues approached their discovery slowly and gradually. First, they studied how the structure of particles of various materials changes after their treatment with cold plasma.
After examining the copper sample, the scientists noticed that the structure of the sample changed and the pieces of metal stopped interacting with some corrosive substances. When they examined the properties of the modified sample, they realized that they were very similar to those of gold.
Promotional video:
Now, this open "transmutation", as scientists hope, will make it possible to reduce the cost of chemical catalysts and use gold for other purposes, for example, in the production of electronics, where it can no longer be replaced by the same copper.
