Gold element silver (as electrum) and also naturally alloyed with copper and palladium. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides). Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, which forms a soluble tetrachloroaurate anion. Gold is insoluble in nitric acid, which dissolves silver and base metals, a property that has long been used to refine gold and to confirm the presence of gold in metallic objects, giving rise to the term "acid test". Gold also dissolves in alkaline solutions of cyanide,
Acid–base reaction Instead of defining acid–base reactions in terms of protons or other bonded substances, the Lewis definition defines a base (referred to as a "Lewis base") to be a compound that can donate an "electron pair", and an acid (a "Lewis acid") to be a compound that can receive this electron pair. For example, boron trifluoride, BF is a typical Lewis acid. It can accept a pair of electrons as it has a vacancy in its octet. The fluoride ion has a full octet and can donate a pair of electrons. Thus is a typical Lewis acid, Lewis base reaction. All