Question

What is the valency of gold?

Answer 1

Valency: The valency of an atom is defined as the number of electrons gained or lost from the valence shell by an atom to attain noble gas electronic configuration.

• Gold belongs to the d-block element of group 11 and 6th period.
• The atomic number of Gold(Au)=79
• The electronic configuration of Gold is $1{\mathrm{s}}^{2}2{\mathrm{s}}^{2}2{\mathrm{p}}^{6}3{\mathrm{s}}^{2}3{\mathrm{p}}^{6}4{\mathrm{s}}^{2}3{\mathrm{d}}^{10}4{\mathrm{p}}^{6}5{\mathrm{s}}^{2}4{\mathrm{d}}^{10}5{\mathrm{p}}^{6}4{\mathrm{f}}^{14}5{\mathrm{d}}^{10}6{\mathrm{s}}^1$
• From electronic configuration, we concluded that 1 electron is present in the outermost valence shell which can be removed easily to attain the stable configuration.
• Thus, the valency of Gold is 1.