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Malleability

In materials science, malleability is the ability of a material to undergo large plastic deformations under compressive stress. Compressive stress is the reverse of tensile stress. Adjacent parts of the material tend to press against each other through a typical stress plane. Material may be flattened into thin sheets if malleable by hammering or rolling. Malleable materials can be flattened into metal leaves. Many metals with high malleability also have high ductility.

Gold is the most malleable of all metals. Gold is a bright, slightly reddish yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. It can be drawn into a monoatomic wire and then stretched about twice before it breaks. Such nanowires distort via formation, reorientation, and migration of dislocations and crystal twins without noticeable hardening. A single gram of gold can be hammered into a gold foil of 1 square meter.

References:
Materials Science:
  1. U.S. Department of Energy, Material Science. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 1 and 2. January 1993.
  2. U.S. Department of Energy, Material Science. DOE Fundamentals Handbook, Volume 2 and 2. January 1993.
  3. William D. Callister, David G. Rethwisch. Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction 9th Edition, Wiley; 9 edition (December 4, 2013), ISBN-13: 978-1118324578.
  4. Eberhart, Mark (2003). Why Things Break: Understanding the World by the Way It Comes Apart. Harmony. ISBN 978-1-4000-4760-4.
  5. Gaskell, David R. (1995). Introduction to the Thermodynamics of Materials (4th ed.). Taylor and Francis Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56032-992-3.
  6. González-Viñas, W. & Mancini, H.L. (2004). An Introduction to Materials Science. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07097-1.
  7. Ashby, Michael; Hugh Shercliff; David Cebon (2007). Materials: engineering, science, processing, and design (1st ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-8391-3.
  8. J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta, Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3d ed., Prentice-Hall, 2001, ISBN: 0-201-82498-1.

See above:

Material Properties