Question

his question is from my chemistry assignment. 1. year engineering student. This is from the topic electrochemistry.

Question:
You work as an engineer in a company that produces computer chips. A new accountant who understands the economy/business, but not chemistry, sends the following note. "Because of the high price of gold, the company should change sticks from being covered with gold to make chips of copper that are much cheaper." Write a note to the boss explaining why copper is a bad choice and why you should keep using gold.

This is the complete question.

In norwegian language:
20.) Du jobber som ingeniør i et firma som produserer databrikker. En ny regnskapsfører som forstår økonomi, men ikke kjemi, sender følgende notat. “På grunn av den høye prisen på gull, bør firmaet forandre pinner fra å være dekket med gull til å lage brikker av kopper som er mye billigere.” Skriv et notat til sjefen der du forklarer hvorfor kopper er et dårlig valg og hvorfor dere bør fortsette med å bruke gull.

Please give a thorough and detailed answer, explaining why.

Answer 1

Eventhough replacing gold plated chips with copper plated chips seems to be a cheaper and better alternative considering the similarity in conductivities,in reality it is not so.

Firstly,the electrical properties (conductivity) are similar only in the case of pure metal for these metals.Copper when exposed to air develops a coating of Copper oxide which is not a conductor whereas gold does not oxidize. The conductivity of the coating being of prime importance,we cannot compromise on it for the sake of making the production cheaper.

Secondly,the malleability of gold is far superior to that of copper which means that the thinnest layer of gold that can be made will be thinner the layer of copper and thus effectively reducing cost and space.