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what determines the colour of different metals?
Nearly all metals are silver-grey in colour. Some a bit whiter, some darker.
The exceptions (as far as I know) are copper and gold.
Can anyone explain why these two are different from all the others? They have the same outer d-electron configuration, but then, so does silver, and that's, well, silver!!
Then there's brass and bronze; different colours again, but I suspect it's some property of copper that gives both of them their colour.
1 Answer
- Joe MLv 69 years agoFavourite answer
A current theory is called the band theory:
Light is absorbed by certain wavelengths and not others. This varies with the electron band levels. Because each metal has different electron configuration they have different wavelengths that are absorbed.
Metals are colored because the absorption and re-emission of light are dependent on wavelength. Gold and copper have low reflectivity at short wavelengths, and yellow and red are preferentially reflected, as the color here suggests. Silver has good reflectivity that does not vary with wavelength, and therefore appears very close to white.
