Is alchemy actually possible? With today’s technology, alchemy is technically feasible, but making a lot of gold would require more energy than is practical.
These days, we associate the word alchemy with the attempt to change base metals, such as lead, into gold, so called precious metals. However, that is not what alchemy is. Alchemy was a combination of science and philosophy, and it bears similarities to modern chemistry. Alchemists wanted to purify and perfect nature, or some materials. The idea of turning lead into gold was to purify it, or make it perfect. Alchemists were also trying to make an elixir of life as well. It was a combination of science and mythology. Nobody knows where the original route of the word was, it could be Greek, it could be Egyptian, but it came into English via Arabic and French. In Arabic, the word was “alkimiya”. “Al” is the definite article “the”, and “kimiya” means “chemistry”. It could have its origins in “pouring together”, which happens when you mix alloys to make new metals.
Our image of alchemists desperately trying to transform iron into gold for their own personal wealth is a fairly modern one and one that does not really do justice to the alchemists of old. Alchemists were metallurgists, chemists, and scientists. They did believe in the spiritual, but as the science has existed for thousands of years, so did everybody else as well. Alchemists were devoted to trying to mix metals and compounds to see what happened. Their goal was always to purify the material, with the ultimate goal of purifying us. They believed that if they could work out how to purify lead and make gold, they would know how to purify the human soul. This negative image of alchemists only started in the 18th century and it was manufactured by the new breed of scientists. Throughout the 17th century, a new type of science evolved. This science was devoted to proof of concepts through repeatable experimentation. Alchemy was about experimentation, but it was also about the mystical arts and the spirit world. Alchemists believed in the connection between the two. Modern scientists wanted to distance themselves from alchemists, and make sure that people didn’t think there was a connection between alchemy and chemistry, so they decreed that alchemy was only about making gold. This led people to believe that alchemists were crazy, greedy, fraudsters, or practitioners of the dark arts. And that is the image we have been left with today. Which is a shame because the alchemists did a lot for human understanding of metals and other chemicals.
So, all of that aside, is alchemy (the turning of lead into gold) possible? It is possible, but it isn’t practical. Gold is an element that occurs on Earth, but isn’t actually formed here. All of the gold we have on Earth has come to us from the stars. Gold has the chemical symbol AU, which comes from the Latin for gold, “aurum”. It has the atomic number 79, which means it has 79 protons in its nucleus. It is a very dense metal and is called a heavy metal. You can tell how heavy and dense it is if you try to pick up a bar. A 1 kg bar of gold is surprisingly small and the gold bars we see on TV weighs 12.4 kg, even though it is not very big and looks light.
The gold we have on Earth was formed billions of years ago in a neutron star. Young stars are made of hydrogen, which is the most common element in the universe. Their massive gravity tries to crush them, which creates so much pressure that the hydrogen is fused to make helium, a slightly heavier element. This fusion creates heat, which counteracts the gravity of the star, keeping it burning. Once all of the hydrogen has gone, the star starts to collapse in on itself, but then the helium is fused together to make carbon. Then the carbon is fused to make a heavier element, and this repeats until iron is left. There is not enough pressure to fuse iron into anything, so it stays like that. At least, there isn’t enough pressure in a regular star, but there is enough pressure in a neutron star. The neutron star fuses lead and creates gold, which is then blasted across the universe.
So, is that possible on Earth? Yes, but its not practical. To fuse iron into gold, you need more energy than our sun has. You need more energy than a star many times bigger than our sun has. You need a neutron star’s worth of energy. However, there is another way of doing it. To make gold, all you need to do is put 79 protons together. That can be done by removing a proton from Mercury, which has 80, or adding one to platinum, which has 78. The only way to do this, though, is in a nuclear reaction. All you need to do is start a nuclear reaction and fire neutrons at it. By doing this, you could knock a proton off a Mercury atom, or add a neutron, which would become a proton, to a platinum atom. Do this, and you will have gold. You will need a nuclear reactor. You will also not create a lot of gold, maybe just a few atoms. And that gold you did make will be highly radioactive. Still, you can make gold on Earth. And this is what I learned today.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemy
https://www.etymonline.com/word/alchemy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_bar
https://www.wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2014/05/02/can-gold-be-created-from-other-elements
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gold-bar-lot-47047/