What makes gold non-reactive?

Well first of all, gold isn't entirely non-reactive. In fact, there's a substance called aqua regia, also known as “royal water”, which was named because of its ability to dissolve gold. But you are right in the sense that besides that particular substance, almost nothing can react with gold. Why is that? read more

Well first of all, gold isn't entirely non-reactive. In fact, there's a substance called aqua regia, also known as “royal water”, which was named because of its ability to dissolve gold. But you are right in the sense that besides that particular substance, almost nothing can react with gold. read more

Gold is very low in the reactivity series (i.e. the electrochemical series). This makes it poorly electropositive. This means that it does not prefer to exist as positive ions but prefers its (natural) atomic state. read more

First off, gold does react. You can form stable gold alloys and gold compounds. It's just hard, mostly for reasons explained by the other answer. The reason bulk gold solid is largely unreactive is because the electrons in gold fall at energies which few molecules or chemicals match (i.e., due to relativistic effects). read more