Gold Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Electronics === Only 10% of the world consumption of new gold produced goes to industry,<ref name="oil-price.com-worlds-gold-consumption 2011" /> but by far the most important industrial use for new gold is in fabrication of corrosion-free [[electrical connectors]] in computers and other electrical devices. For example, according to the World Gold Council, a typical cell phone may contain 50 mg of gold, worth about 2 dollars 82 cents. But since nearly one billion cell phones are produced each year, a gold value of US$2.82 in each phone adds to US$2.82 billion in gold from just this application.<ref>[http://www.usfunds.com/slideshows/the-many-uses-of-gold/ Uses of gold] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20141104233515/http://www.usfunds.com/slideshows/the-many-uses-of-gold/ |date=4 November 2014 }} Accessed 4 November 2014</ref> (Prices updated to November 2022) Though gold is attacked by free chlorine, its good conductivity and general resistance to oxidation and corrosion in other environments (including resistance to non-chlorinated acids) has led to its widespread industrial use in the electronic era as a thin-layer coating on [[electrical connector]]s, thereby ensuring good connection. For example, gold is used in the connectors of the more expensive electronics cables, such as audio, video and [[USB]] cables. The benefit of using gold over other connector metals such as [[tin]] in these applications has been debated; gold connectors are often criticized by audio-visual experts as unnecessary for most consumers and seen as simply a marketing ploy. However, the use of gold in other applications in electronic sliding contacts in highly humid or corrosive atmospheres, and in use for contacts with a very high failure cost (certain [[computer]]s, communications equipment, [[spacecraft]], [[jet aircraft]] engines) remains very common.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Krech III |editor-first=Shepard |editor2-last=Merchant |editor2-first=Carolyn |editor3-last=McNeill |editor3-first=John Robert |title=Encyclopedia of World Environmental History |volume=2: FβN |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-93734-4 |pages=597β |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=G7JrhAy5phoC |page=597}} }}</ref> Besides sliding electrical contacts, gold is also used in [[electrical contacts]] because of its resistance to [[corrosion]], [[electrical conductivity]], [[ductile|ductility]] and lack of [[toxicity]].<ref>{{cite web |title=General Electric Contact Materials |website=Electrical Contact Catalog (Material Catalog) |publisher=Tanaka Precious Metals |date=2005 |url=http://www.tanaka-precious.com/catalog/material.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010303213152/http://www.tanaka-precious.com/catalog/material.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 March 2001 |access-date=21 February 2007}}</ref> Switch contacts are generally subjected to more intense corrosion stress than are sliding contacts. Fine gold wires are used to connect [[semiconductor device]]s to their packages through a process known as [[wire bonding]]. The concentration of free electrons in gold metal is 5.91Γ10<sup>22</sup> cm<sup>β3</sup>.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MaWKDQAAQBAJ&pg=SA2-PA8 |title=Electronic, Magnetic, and Optical Materials, Second Edition |last1=Fulay |first1=Pradeep |last2=Lee |first2=Jung-Kun |date=2016 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-4987-0173-0}}</ref> Gold is highly [[electrical conductivity|conductive]] to electricity and has been used for [[electrical wiring]] in some high-energy applications (only silver and copper are more conductive per volume, but gold has the advantage of corrosion resistance). For example, gold electrical wires were used during some of the [[Manhattan Project]]'s atomic experiments, but large high-current silver wires were used in the [[calutron]] isotope separator magnets in the project. It is estimated that 16% of the world's presently-accounted-for gold and 22% of the world's silver is contained in electronic technology in Japan.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/japan-wants-citizens-to-donate-their-phone-to-make-2020-olympic-medals-1326938 |title=Japan wants citizens to donate their old phone to make 2020 Olympics medals |work=TechRadar |date=23 August 2016 |author=Peckham, James}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page