5 thoughts on “How to distinguish the purity of gold”

  1. 1. Identification of electronic gold detector

    the gold detector is a high-precision instrument for detecting the purity of precious metals such as pure gold, K gold, platinum, palladium, silver, etc. it is often divided into a density method gold detector and a fluorescence spectrum gold detector. The densitometric gold detector uses Archimedes principle to judge whether the density of unknown metals is consistent with the fixed density of precious metals in nature, so as to preliminarily judge the type of unknown metals

    the fluorescence spectrum gold detector is also known as XRF. The analysis method of the equipment is that the X-ray detector with a certain energy resolution simultaneously detects various energy characteristic X-rays emitted by the sample. The output signal amplitude of the detector is proportional to the received X-ray energy. The energy magnitude and intensity of the output signal of the detector are analyzed by the energy spectrometer to conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis on the sample

    2. Touchstone test method

    the touchstone comparison method is to use the determined color of gold and the tested sample to grind on the touchstone. The color of the sample can be determined by comparing the color left by the grinding track

    3. Heating method

    pure gold → bright and golden yellow; Alloy → Matt, black; Platinum → keep white and silver; White K gold → gray or black oxide. However, there are preconditions for burning with a flame of more than 1000 degrees

    4. Nitric acid test method

    nitric acid test is a good way to distinguish the authenticity of gold. However, since the nitric acid used in this test is not easy to obtain, and it is dangerous to do this test at home, if this method is used for identification, attention should be paid to safety

    if the acid dripping place is green, the gold ware is either made of ordinary metal or plated with gold. If the acid drops appear gold, it is gold-plated copper. If the acid drops appear milk colored, it is gold and silver plated. If there is no reaction at the acid dripping point, then this gold ware is real

    5. Scraping porcelain plate method

    this is a good way to expose the original shape of fake gold, but the gold may be damaged. Scrape the porcelain plate with gold. If there is a black scratch on the porcelain plate, the gold is not real gold. If the scratch is gold, it is real gold

    6. Magnet attraction method

    use magnets to remove gold objects. Gold is not a magnetic metal, but iron, cobalt and nickel can be attracted by magnets. If gold is mixed with a certain amount of these three metals, it can indeed be attracted by magnets. But it doesn't mean it's pure gold. Because it may contain other metals (metals that are not attracted by magnets), or it may contain too little iron, cobalt and nickel. What cannot be sucked is not necessarily pure gold, but what can be sucked must be fake

  2. 1. Look at the marks: now the gold jewelry produced by Chinese manufacturers is purified and prepared according to international standards, and marked with K to indicate the amount of gold in the metal products. According to the words of 24K or 18K on the mark, we can know the quality of the jewelry. However, according to the regulations, if it is lower than 10k, we cannot print the number of K gold

    2. Color: the higher the purity of gold jewelry, the darker the color. As people often say, "seven green, eight yellow, nine purple and ten red", that is, if the gold jewelry is blue yellow, the gold content can reach 70%; It is yellow and contains 80-90% gold; If it is reddish yellow, the gold content can reach more than 95. Of course, it is not enough to distinguish the fineness and authenticity of gold jewelry only by color

    3. Weight: the specific gravity of gold is 19.3, higher than that of other metals. The weight of gold with the same volume is 1.8 times that of silver and 2.2 times that of copper. Therefore, the real gold should feel heavy in the hand, while the fake gold should feel lighter

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    4. Listen to the sound: throw the gold ornaments on the table or on the hard ground. The lower the gold content, the greater the elasticity, the higher the jump, and the clear sound will be made with aftersounds; The higher the gold content, the smaller the elasticity, the lower the jump, the lower the sound, and no aftersound

    5. Hardness test: the higher the gold content of jewelry, the softer it is. It is easy to bend by hand, with good toughness and not easy to break. If it is scratched with a hard object, it will leave a clear scratch; The lower the gold content is, the harder it is. It needs more strength to bend and it is easy to break. When it is carved with hard things, the scratch is not obvious

    6. Scientific detection: first, identification by fire. Put the jewelry on a smokeless fire, and the color of pure gold will not change after burning; The color darkened or blackened is fake gold or lack of fineness. The second is chemical method. Spot test with sulfuric acid with a concentration of 45% or 70%, and the gold remains unchanged; Silver turns black; The copper is bubbling green. Because silver, copper and other metals are dissolved in acids, chemical reactions will occur

  3. The simplest identification method is to use the principle of buoyancy law, namely Archimedes law. The steps are as follows:
    1. Specific operation method
    1. First weigh the gold and silver jewelry on a high-precision electronic scale (accuracy: 0.01g) and record its weight
    2. Cut 1 / 2 of the plastic bottle filled with purified water to leave half of it, then pour a proper amount of purified water, put it on the electronic scale to weigh and record its weight; The plastic bottle containing purified water continues to be placed on the electronic scale
    3. Tie the gold and silver jewelry to be identified with a thin wire (the thinner the better). Dip the jewelry into the plastic bottle with pure water on the electronic scale with one end of the thin wire. Be careful not to sink the jewelry, nor expose the jewelry to the water, nor touch the inner wall of the plastic bottle. At this time, record the displayed weight
    II. Calculation
    according to the above operation method, three groups of data are obtained: the first group is the weight of the jewelry, the second group is the weight of the plastic bottle containing purified water, and the third group is the weight of the plastic bottle after sinking into the jewelry
    hypothesis 1: we need to identify silver jewelry. The weight of the jewelry is 105g, the weight of the plastic bottle containing purified water is 200g, and the weight of the plastic bottle immersed in jewelry is 210g
    210g-200g = 10g (the added weight of the plastic bottle after being immersed in jewelry). According to Archimedes' Law: "an object immersed in a static liquid is subject to a buoyant force, and its volume is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object", the added weight of the plastic bottle after being immersed in jewelry is the volume of jewelry, which is 10cm, that is, the weight of 10G pure water (the density of pure water is 1g / 1cm)

    we know that the density of pure silver 9999 is 10.5 g / cubic centimeter, the weight of silver jewelry is 105 g, and the volume is 10 cubic centimeter, that is, 10 cubic centimeter × 10.5 g / cubic centimeter = 105 g, which can be determined to be pure silver
    hypothesis 2: what we need to identify is gold jewelry. The weight of the jewelry is 19.3 g, the weight of the plastic bottle containing purified water is 200 g, and the weight of the plastic bottle after immersion in the jewelry is 201 G
    201g-200g = 1g (the added weight of the plastic bottle after immersion in jewelry). The added weight of the plastic bottle after immersion in jewelry is the volume of jewelry, i.e. 1 cubic centimeter, i.e. the weight of 1 gram of purified water

    we know that the density of pure gold 9999 is 19.3 g / cubic centimeter, the weight of gold jewelry is 19.3 g, and the volume is 1 cubic centimeter, that is, 1 cubic centimeter x 19.3 g / cubic centimeter = 19.3 g, which can be determined to be pure gold
    according to the above operation and calculation, if the density of jewelry calculated by reverse calculation does not conform to the inherent density of the metal, it is either not pure enough or it is fake jewelry at all.

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