Golden opportunity
Swiss researchers believe they can explain the behaviour of gold particles, which could pave the way to new applications in fuel cells and air purification. Stuart Nathan reports.
Gold is a bit of a puzzle to engineers and scientists. Its reluctance to form compounds -the very thing that has made it so precious for jewellery and art - renders it useless for chemicals; but its high electrical conductance makes it invaluable in electronics.
Most confusing of all, despite its chemical inertness, is its strong activity as a catalyst - but only when in the form of small particles. Researchers at the
(ESRF) in
believe they can explain this property - which could lead the way to new applications in fuel cells and air purification.
Gold nanoparticles are able to catalyse the oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, but the activity depends very strongly on the size of the particles; as the size increases, the activity tails off rapidly. The research, led by Jeroen van Bokhoven of ETH
's Institute for Chemical and Bio-Engineering, decided to use the ESRF's high-energy beamline to study the reactions.
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