Density of liquid gold measured by a non-contact technique

Electrostatic levitation together with multi-beam laser heating and ultraviolet imaging made possible to handle a sample of liquid gold, without any contamination, and to determine its density over a large temperature range. Over the 1337-1800 K interval, the density of Au was measured as rho(T) = 1.74 x 10(4) - 1.44 (T-T-m) kg.m(-3), where T-m, the melting temperature, was 1337 K. These data yield a calculated volume expansion coefficient of 8.3x10(-5) K-1. The values agree well with the literature values.