Nanoparticles Nanoparticles as Catalysts in Chemical Reactions

Gold Nanoparticle Catalysts• Gold as a material ischemically inert(stable)and generally regardedas a poor catalyst.• Masake Haruta resentlypublished a paper in ascientific journaldescribing how goldcan be an effectivecatalyst at nanoparticlesizes.• Haruta argues that thecatalytic properties ofgold depend on threemain factors:1. Contact Structure2. Support Selection3. Particle Sizehttp://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/104529618/main.html,ftx_absImage shows catalytic activity for theoxidation of H2 as a function of temperature.Traditional Gold requires a high h temperature tto even become a poor catalyst.