
Chinese Scientists create process to turn Copper into 'Gold' - bjflanne
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2179209/chinese-scientists-turn-copper-gold
======
rrggrr
They are NOT turning copper in to Gold. They're altering the properties of
copper using a process a little like sputtering to make it resilient enough
for use in applications where Gold is currently best utilized.

~~~
bjflanne
I agree, that's why I said 'Gold' \- it's not gold, it just is an attempt at
replicating some of the best industrial aspects of it.

------
lambda
Looks like this is the actual paper:
[http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/12/eaau3275](http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/12/eaau3275)

Note that this is about replacing the use of gold as a catalyst for
synthesizing alcohol from coal, not any electronics usage.

I don't know enough about the science to say if this is promising for
electronics usage or not.

------
Phlarp
This seems less like they turned copper into gold and more that they found a
way to process copper so that it can replace gold in some industrial
applications.

I suppose that title wouldn't climb the frontpage as quickly.

------
dmitrygr

      > The method developed by
      > Sun’s team can inject a
      > large amount of energy
      > into copper atoms and
      > made the electrons more
      > dense and stable, they
      > said.
    

What is this pseudoscientific drivel? What the hell do they mean by "inject a
large amount of energy" into atom? Can anybody actually explain what they
created and what the properties of that material are?

~~~
gus_massa
<big IIUC warning>

They are using sputtering that is a method that use a big spark to remove some
Cooper atom from a surface and put the atoms in another surface. (You can use
other metals instead of Cooper too.)

The deposited Cooper atoms are not in the standard environment that they is
use to be, like in a big Cooper metal block. So they attach to the surface in
a weird configuration.

In the new configuration, the elections don't have the usual distribution
(like the electrons in the atoms of a metal Cooper bar). Anyway, the atoms of
Cooper here don't have more or less electrons that usual, so they are still
"metallic" with some definition.

In the new rearrangement, the electrons are more densely packed. If you use
the (wrong) Borh atom model, some of them have an orbit that is closer to the
center than usual. With the correct quantum model, the idea is that some of
the inner orbitals are usually empty, but here one of the electrons that is
usually in an outer orbital falls into this usually empty orbital.

(It's much more complicated, because the orbitals are not static and they are
rearranged in each configuratio, and the orbitals are not a totally clear
concept when you consider the quantum effect of correlation, but let's keep
this simple.)

So the new configuration is more compact, because one electron that is usually
in an outer orbital is now in a inner orbital.

The outer electron was easy to attack by other chemical substances. This gives
Cooper some of it's usual properties. With the new configuration, it's more
difficult to attack the electron, so the atoms have some (at least one)
property that is similar to the properties of Gold.

In particular, this property is useful to bound some Carbon atoms and help
them react, so they can produce alcohol from carbon (and water and energy?).

</big IIUC warning>

~~~
dmitrygr
Thank you

------
cslarson
[meta] Does this really need to be an amp link?

~~~
kgwxd
Nothing ever does.

------
awakeasleep
If this works out it's bad news for gold bugs- 10% of global gold demand is
for electronics manufacturing.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I thought they primarily viewed gold as valuable because it's a medium of
exchange that they believe will remain useful and stable in case of some sort
of societal collapse? There probably won't be a lot of microelectronics
getting manufactured in that scenario; gold prices dropping ought to be good
for them now.

~~~
i_am_nomad
Hoarding gold when TSHTF is stupid anyway. The only commodities in that event
will be booze, ammo, and women.

~~~
phyller
Personally, I would go for food, clothing, and shelter

~~~
pavel_lishin
Hard to trade shelter, but I see what you mean - but I think those are too low
on the pyramid to truly be commodities. I'm thinking painkillers and
antibiotics.

Also, skills. If I were truly paranoid, instead of hoarding gold I'd be
hoarding friendships with dentists and paramedics. An infected tooth can kill
you, and make you wish it wouldn't take its sweet time doing it.

------
EricRiese
While we're at it with the misleading titles, this one could have been "Sun's
micro system turns copper into gold".

