Gold has a long and fascinating history of use in a diverse range of industries and applications. The future will see gold being used in a multitude of new products and processes.
But gold’s many valuable properties mean that its technological applications are all around us, right now.
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Gold’s role in technology
Where is gold actually used in technology? Take a stroll through our interactive town to understand where gold is used to bring performance and efficiency improvements to modern life and where it will be used increasingly in the future.
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Automotive
Gold is used by the automotive industry in catalytic convertors. Nanoparticles of gold alloyed with other precious metals are effective in reducing harmful emissions from the engine exhaust.
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Electronics
Gold wires the internet. It is the material of choice in numerous electronic applications, especially telecommunications, information technology and other high performance and safety critical applications. The single largest industrial application for gold.
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Medicine
Gold and health have been linked for many thousands of years, but in modern dentistry, precise surgery, rapidly diagnosing disease, and treating serious conditions gold plays a key role in modern medicine.
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Nanotechnology
At the cutting edge of science, gold nanoparticles have already found practical use in a range of fields. Diagnostic devices for pregnancy and salmonella rely on their unusual optical properties. Gold is proving to be an important catalytic material, with numerous industrial processes benefitting from its unique reactivity.
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Space
Gold’s reflectivity, conductivity and corrosion resistance have played a vital role in space exploration for decades. Its efficiency as a reflector of heat and infra-red radiation has been invaluable in numerous NASA undertakings.
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Engineering
Engineers must specify gold in a number of high-tech applications. It can be used a a lubricating material, as a coating on architectural glass, in fuel cells, jet engines, the list goes on:
