Chemistry

Franz Matthew Fedalizo

Group number: IB
Group name: Coinage Metals
Characteristics:

Like other groups, the members of this family show patterns in

its electron configuration, especially the outermost shells
resulting in trends in chemical behavior:

Z Element No. of electrons/shell

29 copper 2, 8, 18, 1
47 silver 2, 8, 18, 18, 1
79 gold 2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 1
111 roentgenium 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 18, 1

They are all relatively inert, corrosion-resistant metals. Copper

and gold are colored.

These elements have low electrical resistivity so they are used

for wiring. Copper is the cheapest and most widely used. Bond
wires for integrated circuits are usually gold. Silver and silver
plated copper wiring are found in some special applications.
ELEMENTS:

29.Cu-Copper atomic mass:63.55

Uses:
Copper is malleable and ductile and is a good conductor of both heat and electricity.

The purity of copper is expressed as 4N for 99.99% pure or 7N for 99.99999% pure. The
numeral gives the number of nines after the decimal point when expressed as a decimal
(e.g. 4N means 0.9999, or 99.99%). Copper is often too soft for its applications, so it is
incorporated in numerous alloys. For example, brass is a copper-zinc alloy, and bronze is
a copper-tin alloy.[

Occurances:

Copper can be found as native copper in mineral form (for example, in Michigan's
Keweenaw Peninsula). It is a polycrystal, with the largest single crystals measuring
4.4×3.2×3.2 cm.[26] Minerals such as the sulfides: chalcopyrite (CuFeS2), bornite
(Cu5FeS4), covellite (CuS), chalcocite (Cu2S) are sources of copper, as are the
carbonates: azurite (Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2) and malachite (Cu2CO3(OH)2) and the oxide:
cuprite (Cu2O).[25]
47.Ag-Silver atomic mass:107.87
Uses:
Many well known uses of silver involve its precious metal properties, including
currency, decorative items and mirrors. The contrast between the appearance of its
bright white color in contrast with other media makes it very useful to the visual
arts. It has also long been used to confer high monetary value as objects (such as
silver coins and investment bars) or make objects symbolic of high social or political
rank

Occurances:

Silver is found in native form, as an alloy with gold (see also: electrum), and in ores
containing sulfur, arsenic, antimony or chlorine. Ores include argentite (Ag2S),
chlorargyrite (AgCl) which includes horn silver , and pyrargyrite (Ag3SbS3). The
principal sources of silver are the ores of copper, copper-nickel, lead, and lead-zinc
obtained from Peru, Mexico, China, Australia, Chile, Poland and Serbia.[6] Peru and
Mexico have been mining silver since 1546 and are still major world producers. Top
silver-producing mines are Proaño / Fresnillo (Mexico), Cannington (Queensland,
Australia), Dukat (Russia), Uchucchacua (Peru) and Greens Creek mine (Alaska).[40]

The metal is primarily produced through electrolytic copper refining, gold, nickel
and zinc refining, and by application of the Parkes process on lead metal obtained
from lead ores that contain small amounts of silver. Commercial-grade fine silver is
at least 99.9% pure, and purities greater than 99.999% (five 9s) are available. In
2007, Peru was the world's top producer of silver, closely followed by Mexico,
according to the British Geological Survey.[clarification needed]
79.Au-Gold atomic mass:196.97
Uses: Gold has been widely used throughout the world as a vehicle for monetary
exchange, either by issuance and recognition of gold coins or other bare metal
quantities, or through gold-convertible paper instruments by establishing gold
standards in which the total value of issued money is represented in a store of gold
reserves.

However, the amount of gold in the world is finite and production has not grown in
relation to the world's economies. Today, gold mining output is declining.[9] With the
sharp growth of economies in the 20th century, and increasing foreign exchange, the
world's gold reserves and their trading market have become a small fraction of all
markets and fixed exchange rates of currencies to gold were no longer sustained. At
the beginning of World War I the warring nations moved to a fractional gold
standard, inflating their currencies to finance the war effort. After World War II
gold was replaced by a system of convertible currency following the Bretton Woods
system. Gold standards and the direct convertibility of currencies to gold have been
abandoned by world governments, being replaced by fiat currency in their stead.
Switzerland was the last country to tie its currency to gold; it backed 40% of its
value until the Swiss joined the International Monetary Fund in 1999.[10]

Pure gold is too soft for day-to-day monetary use and is typically hardened by
alloying with copper, silver or other base metals. The gold content of alloys is
measured in carats (k). Pure gold is designated as 24k. Gold coins intended for
circulation from 1526 into the 1930s were typically a standard 22k alloy called
crown gold, for hardness.

Occurances:

Gold's atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher atomic number elements
which occur naturally. Like all elements with atomic numbers larger than iron, gold
is thought to have been formed from a supernova nucleosynthesis process. Their
explosions scattered metal-containing dusts (including heavy elements like gold) into
the region of space in which they later condensed into our solar system and the
Earth.[40]

On Earth, whenever elemental gold occurs, it appears most often as a metal solid
solution of gold with silver, i.e. a gold silver alloy. Such alloys usually have a silver
content of 8–10%. Electrum is elemental gold with more than 20% silver.
Electrum's color runs from golden-silvery to silvery, dependent upon the silver
content. The more silver, the lower the specific gravity.

Relative sizes of an 860 kg block of gold ore, and the 30 g of gold that can be
extracted from it. Toi gold mine, Japan.

Gold left behind after a pyrite cube was oxidized to hematite. Note cubic shape of
cavity.

Gold is found in ores made up of rock with very small or microscopic particles of
gold. This gold ore is often found together with quartz or sulfide minerals such as
Fool's Gold, which is a pyrite.[41] These are called lode deposits. Native gold is also
found in the form of free flakes, grains or larger nuggets that have been eroded
from rocks and end up in alluvial deposits (called placer deposits). Such free gold is
always richer at the surface of gold-bearing veins owing to the oxidation of
accompanying minerals followed by weathering, and washing of the dust into
streams and rivers, where it collects and can be welded by water action to form
nuggets.

Gold sometimes occurs combined with tellurium as the minerals calaverite,

krennerite, nagyagite, petzite and sylvanite, and as the rare bismuthide maldonite
(Au2Bi) and antimonide aurostibite (AuSb2). Gold also occurs in rare alloys with
copper, lead, and mercury: the minerals auricupride (Cu3Au), novodneprite
(AuPb3) and weishanite ((Au, Ag)3Hg2).

Recent research suggests that microbes can sometimes play an important role in
forming gold deposits, transporting and precipitating gold to form grains and
nuggets that collect in alluvial deposits.[42]

The world's oceans contain gold. Measured concentrations of gold in the Atlantic
and Northeast Pacific are 50–150 fmol/L or 10-30 parts per quadrillion. In general,
Au concentrations for Atlantic and Pacific samples are the same (~50 fmol/L) but
less certain. Mediterranean deep waters contain higher concentrations of Au (100–
150 fmol/L) attributed to wind-blown dust and/or rivers. At 10 parts per quadrillion
the Earth's oceans would hold 15,000 tons of gold[43]. These figures are three orders
of magnitude less than reported in the literature prior to 1988, indicating
contamination problems with the earlier data.

A number of people have claimed to be able to economically recover gold from sea
water, but so far they have all been either mistaken or crooks. A so-called reverend,
Prescott Jernegan ran a gold-from-seawater swindle in the United States in the
1890s. A British fraudster ran the same scam in England in the early 1900s.[44] Fritz
Haber (the German inventor of the Haber process) did research on the extraction of
gold from sea water in an effort to help pay Germany's reparations following World
War I.[45] Based on the published values of 2 to 64 ppb of gold in seawater a
commercially successful extraction seemed possible. After analysis of 4000 water
samples yielding an average of 0.004 ppb it became clear that the extraction would
not be possible and he stopped the project.[46] No commercially viable mechanism for
performing gold extraction from sea water has yet been identified. Gold synthesis is
not economically viable and is unlikely to become so in the foreseeable future

Roentgenium 111. atomic mass:272

Uses:??
Occurrence:sythesized