The lure of gold has been the downfall of many, from those worshipping the biblical golden calf to those unsuccessfully staking their claims during the 19th century gold rushes. Nevertheless, this lustrous metal continues to connote the pinnacle of achievement, as evidenced by Nobel Prize medals, Olympic medals, and Academy Award statuettes. Would our fascination with gold be lessened if we knew that its shiny allure was the result of excited electrons?

Silver, iron, platinum, gold, and copper are all metals, which generally are malleable and ductile, conduct electricity and heat, and have a metallic luster. Some of their properties can be attributed to the way electrons are arranged in the material.

The bonding of metals

When two atoms combine, different types of bonding can occur: covalent, ionic, and metallic. Silver, iron, platinum, gold, and copper all form metallic bonds. Unlike covalent bonding, metallic bonding is non-directional. The strong bond consists of positively charged metal atoms in fixed positions, surrounded by delocalized electrons. These delocalized electrons are often referred to as "a sea of electrons," and can help explain why copper and gold are yellow and orange, while most other metals are silver.

Band Theory

The color of metals can be explained by band theory, which assumes that overlapping energy levels form bands.

The mobility of electrons exposed to an electric field depends on the width of the energy bands, and their proximity to other electrons. In metallic substances, empty bands can overlap with bands containing electrons. The electrons of a particular atom are able to move to what would normally be a higher-level state, with little or no additional energy. The outer electrons are said to be "free," and ready to move in the presence of an electric field.

Some substances do not experience band overlap, no matter how many atoms are in close proximity. For these substances, a large gap remains between the highest band containing electrons (the valence band) and the next band, which is empty (the conduction band). As a result, valence electrons are bound to a particular atom and cannot become mobile without a significant amount of energy being made available. These substances are electrical insulators. Semiconductors are similar, except that the gap is smaller, falling between these two extremes.

The highest energy level occupied by electrons is called the Fermi energy, Fermi level, or Fermi surface.

If the efficiency of absorption and re-emission is approximately equal at all optical energies, then all the different colors in white light will be reflected equally well. This leads to the silver color of polished iron and silver surfaces.

The efficiency of this emission process depends on selection rules. However, even when the energy supplied is sufficient, and an energy level transition is permitted by the selection rules, this transition may not yield appreciable absorption. This can happen because the energy level accommodates a small number of electrons.

For most metals, a single continuous band extends through to high energies. Inside this band, each energy level accommodates only so many electrons (we call this the density of states). The available electrons fill the band structure to the level of the Fermi surface and the density of states varies as energy increases (the shape is based on which energy levels broaden to form the various parts of the band).

If the efficiency decreases with increasing energy, as is the case for gold and copper, the reduced reflectivity at the blue end of the spectrum produces yellow and reddish colors.

Silver, gold and copper have similar electron configurations, but we perceive them as having quite distinct colors. Electrons absorb energy from incident light, and are excited from lower energy levels to higher, vacant energy levels. The excited electrons can then return to the lower energies and emit the difference of energy as a photon.

If an energy level (like the 3d band) holds many more electrons (than other energy levels) then the excitation of electrons from this highly occupied level to above the Fermi level will become quite important. Gold fulfills all the requirements for an intense absorption of light with energy of 2.3 eV (from the 3d band to above the Fermi level). The color we see is yellow, as the corresponding wavelengths are re-emitted. Copper has a strong absorption at a slightly lower energy, with orange being most strongly absorbed and re-emitted. In silver, the absorption peak lies in the ultraviolet region, at about 4 eV. As a result, silver maintains high reflectivity evenly across the visible spectrum, and we see it as a pure white. The lower energies (which in this case contain energies corresponding to the entire visible spectrum of color) are equally absorbed and re-emitted.

Silver and aluminum powders appear black because the white light that has been re-emitted is absorbed by nearby grains of powder and no light reaches the eye.

Transmitted color of gold

Gold is so malleable that it can be beaten into gold leaf less than 100 nm thick, revealing a bluish-green color when light is transmitted through it. Gold reflects yellow and red, but not blue or blue-green. The direct transmission of light through a metal in the absence of reflection is observed only in rare instances.

Colored gold alloys

When two metals are dissolved in each other (as is the case with alloys), the color is often a mixture of the two. For example, copper dissolved in gold changes the color from a yellow-gold to a red-gold. Silver dissolved in gold creates a green-gold color. White gold contains palladium and silver. The color of gold jewelry can be attributed to the addition of different amounts of several metals (such as copper, silver, zinc, and so on). Some of these color changes can be explained by shifts in the energy levels relative to the Fermi level.

Some alloys form intermetallics, where strong covalent bonds replace metallic bonding. Bonding is localized, so there is no sea of electrons.

When indium or gallium is added to gold, a blue color can result. The cause of color in these intermetallics is different than that of yellow gold.

Surface colors

Many metals create the illusion of being colored. The color can be attributed to a very thin surface coating, such as a paint or dye, or thin oxide layers can create interference colors (see butterflies) similar to those in oil or soap bubbles.

The color of nanoparticles

The color known as "Purple of Cassius" in glass and glass enamel is created by incorporating a colloidal suspension of gold nanoparticles, a technology in use since ancient times. Colloidal silver is yellow, and alloys of gold and silver create shades of purple-red and pink.

Nanoshells are a recent product from the field of nanotechnology. A dielectric core is coated with metal, and a plasmon resonance mechanism creates color, the wavelength depending on the ratio of coating thickness to core size. For gold, a purple color gives way to greens and blues as the coating shell is made thinner. In the future, jewelry applications may include other precious metals, such as platinum.