Interesting catalysis can occur when gold nanoparticles are used as a catalyst support.  My research group has developed this materials concept to probe various mild-temperature, aqueous-based chemical reactions, towards the long-term goal of understanding structure-property relationships of designer materials in a rational manner.  In this talk, I discuss several examples of this concept, in which the structural parameter of metal surface coverage controls the observed catalytic behavior.  In reactions for which the gold is inert, such as nitrite reduction and trichloroethene hydrohalogenation, the metal-on-gold nanoparticles ('M-on-Au NPs') exhibit volcano-shape dependence on surface coverage.  This dependence can also be found for reactions in which gold is catalytically active, such as glycerol oxidation.  Knowing the state of the supported metal atoms (through x-ray absorption spectroscopy and other techniques) becomes important in identifying the active site, which can then be correlated back to surface coverage and catalytic activity.

Colloidal gold nanoparticles as a support material for water-phase catalysis

246th National Meeting (2013)

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