Gold or silver

[JayzSub]

Today in science class we learned silver is one of the best electrical conductors, if so why do we use gold when it cost more? 

Are there other benefits to using gold over silver? 

 

[Aimi]

12 minutes ago, JayzSub said:

Are there other benefits to using gold over silver? 

Marketing

[tikker]

From what I know, mostly for its resistance to corrosion and wear.

[Drak3]

12 minutes ago, JayzSub said:

Are there other benefits to using gold over silver? 

Gold itself doesn't tarnish, and it doesn't tarnish as fast as silver when mixed with other metals.

[Windows7ge]

What Drak3 said, Silver may be a better electrical conductor but on surfaces where water, oxygen, and other contaminates are present Silver will tarnish, this oxide layer can inhibit electrical conductivity and ruin good connections. Gold on the other hand is much more resistant to tarnishing and high quality Gold (closer to 24K) is known to not form an oxide layer at all. This allows contact points to remain in good condition despite wear.

 

You might ask why it isn't used under the solder mask then where it's not exposed to air. That comes down to cost of manufacture. Even though the amount of silver may be worth a $1 or 2 in PCB traces us consumers would pay a much larger premium. Copper is still a very good electrical conductor and isn't a precious metal like Silver so it's much more popularly used for a majority of connections.

[JayzSub]

20 minutes ago, tikker said:

From what I know, mostly for its resistance to corrosion and wear.

 

20 minutes ago, Drak3 said:

Gold itself doesn't tarnish, and it doesn't tarnish as fast as silver when mixed with other metals.

 

5 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

What Drak3 said, Silver may be a better electrical conductor but on surfaces where water, oxygen, and other contaminates are present Silver will tarnish, this oxide layer can inhibit electrical conductivity and ruin good connections. Gold on the other hand is much more resistant to tarnishing and high quality Gold (closer to 24K) is known to not form an oxide layer at all. This allows contact points to remain in good condition despite wear.

 

You might ask why it isn't used under the solder mask then where it's not exposed to air. That comes down to cost of manufacture. Even though the amount of silver may be worth a $1 or 2 in PCB traces us consumers would pay a much larger premium. Copper is still a very good electrical conductor and isn't a precious metal like Silver so it's much more popularly used for a majority of connections.

I ok I get it now thanks for clearing it up for me. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

57 minutes ago, JayzSub said:

Today in science class we learned silver is one of the best electrical conductors, if so why do we use gold when it cost more?

The other thing worth mentioning is gold is very easy to make it stupidly thin, like a dozen atoms thick. So you don't need a whole lot of it.