Gold isn’t inert, it just has bodyguards protecting it
To confirm this, the researchers studied the behavior of an oxygen molecule on each type of gold surface. They asked how much molecular oxygen would stick to the surface, and for the molecules that did stick, what energy is required to cause the oxygen molecule to split. They showed that the surface structure commonly observed in bulk gold—a hexagonal pattern—does not hold onto oxygen very strongly, and the oxygen’s structure is not deformed. That means it still takes a lot of energy to split the oxygen molecule into two atoms that are ready to react.
On the other hand, if the gold structure is a square pattern, oxygen molecules readily stick to the surface and are deformed to the point of splitting, leaving them available to react (indeed, under these conditions, gold will oxidize as well). The researchers estimate that the square lattice gold surface is as active as common...
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