International Spy Movies: Acids Dissolve Many Metals

• James Bond often carries an acid-filled gold pen. Bond’s pen is made of gold because gold is one of the few metals that is not dissolved by most acids.
• When Bond is imprisoned, he squirts some acid out of his pen and onto the iron bars of his cell.
• With enough acid, it would be possible to dissolve the iron bars of a prison cell, but it would take more acid than the amount that fits in a pen.
• We see here: A small piece of aluminum placed in hydrochloric acid dissolves away in about 10 minutes.