Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: Europan Ocean on 10/08/2013 20:26:24

Title: Can gold be added to glass, like lead glass?
Post by: Europan Ocean on 10/08/2013 20:26:24

I like lead glass or crystal, is it possible to mix gold with glass as well? Would it have any good qualities?

I suspect the melting point of gold could boil glass, or reaction with silicon on contact.

Title: Re: Can gold be added to glass, like lead glass?
Post by: Bored chemist on 10/08/2013 21:03:35

You can put a little gold into glass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry_glass

But the melting temperature of glass is too high for gold compounds and they convert back to the metal which would settle out.

You can make glass from pure silica and the glass you get has a fairly high melting point.
You could melt gold in a test tube made from silica glass.

Lead, by comparison forms an oxide which mixes with the other components of the glass and changes it's optical properties.

Title: Re: Can gold be added to glass, like lead glass?
Post by: chris on 26/08/2017 09:31:51

Am I right in thinking that uranium added to glass can result in some beautiful colours?

Title: Re: Can gold be added to glass, like lead glass?
Post by: evan_au on 26/08/2017 10:57:15

Quote from: chris

uranium added to glass can result in some beautiful colours?

Yes, I have seen yellow uranium glass.

But it's even more spectacular under ultraviolet, where it fluoresces.
This chandelier sports UV light globes.
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Title: Re: Can gold be added to glass, like lead glass?
Post by: mrsmith2211 on 27/08/2017 04:14:57

Cranberry glass used to be very expensive because of the gold needed.
"Cranberry glass is made in craft production rather than in large quantities, due to the high cost of the gold. The gold chloride is made by dissolving gold in a solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid (aqua regia). The glass is typically hand blown or molded. The finished, hardened glass is a type of colloid, a solid phase (gold) dispersed inside another solid phase "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cranberry_glass

Title: Re: Can gold be added to glass, like lead glass?
Post by: chiralSPO on 27/08/2017 20:14:56

It's not just cranberry glass. Much of the colored glass used in Medieval stained glass windows owes its colors to gold or silver nanoparticles suspended in colloidal form in the glass. It turns out that it is not too difficult to make lots of metallic nanoparticles that are all similarly sized, and the size determines which frequencies of light it interacts best with. By tweaking the process slightly, the same recipe can make red, orange, yellow, green, or blue glass!

Title: Re: Can gold be added to glass, like lead glass?
Post by: chris on 27/08/2017 23:14:16

Quote from: chiralSPO on 27/08/2017 20:14:56

It turns out that it is not too difficult to make lots of metallic nanoparticles that are all similarly sized

How?