Question

What is the oxidation state of Gold? How is this determined?

Answer 1

Well `"oxidation state"` is the.......

Explanation:

.....charge left on the central atom, when all the bonding pairs of electrons are broken, with the charge, the electrons, assigned to the most electronegative atom.

For details [see this older answer.....](https://socratic.org/questions/how-would-you-define-oxidation-states)

As to elemental gold, this has an oxidation state of BIG FAT ZERO, because it has neither accepted nor donated electrons. Compounds and complexes of `Au^(-I)` `Au^0`, `Au^(+I)`, `Au^(+II)`, `Au^(+III)`, and `Au^(+V)` are known. `Au^(+I)`, and `Au^(+III)` are the common oxidation states in gold chemistry.

For `AuCl_3`, and `HAuCl_4`, what are the oxidation states?