The gold number is defined as the amount (in mg) of a protecting colloid required to prevent the coagulation of 10 mL of a gold sol when 1 mL of 10% NaCl is added.
From the given data:
The gold number is the amount of A required to just prevent coagulation.
The correct amount for coagulation prevention is 33 mg. Thus, the gold number of ‘A’ is \( \mathbf{33} \).
The gold number range of some of the lyophilic colloids is given below:
A: 0.005 - 0.01, B: 0.15 - 0.25, C: 0.04 - 1.0, D: 15 - 25.