>>11168993Gold dust is not gaseous gold, it is just solid gold suspended in a fluid (e.g., exhaust). The vapor pressure of metallic gold is only 0.1 mTorr at 1400 K. Usually gold is evaporated in a high vacuum chamber using an electron beam to vaporize a gold metal source.
Compounds of gold that people exploit to extract gold are not volatile, usually they are water-soluble organic salts (e.g., cyanide).
I have yet to see a "home chemist" with proper technique, often they're working with ridiculously crude setups and their procedures betray room temperature IQs. Their gold losses are probably mostly due to poor handling and during purification. I'm not surprised they cannot admit they just didn't transfer solutions quantitatively, threw out products, or did not have an effective method of extraction and purification.
I have personally worked with volatile gold compounds and they are not volatile enough to evaporate appreciably during handling.
That being said, I have never left a drop of it out on the bench to see if it would evaporate, seeing as they're quite expensive.
