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Wednesday, 28th June 2006 (6220 views)

A group of scientists have discovered how gold nanoparticles can be used as an active catalyst, transforming carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide.

The scientists have published their findings, which could promote the use of gold particles in air cleaning or fuel cells, in the journal Angewandte Chemie.

It was already known that gold particles react to catalyse carbon monoxide, but they did not know how.

The team of scientists, from Switzerland, the UK, the US and France, set up an experiment where they applied a flow of oxygen over the tiny gold specks and used X-ray absorption spectroscopy to observe exactly what was happening.

They found that oxygen bound to the gold reacted with the carbon monoxide when a flow of this gas was passed across, confirming that the metal is strongly reactive even in tiny particles.

"Isn't it beautiful that the most inert bulk metal is so reactive when finely dispersed?" commented paper author Jeroen A van Bokhoven.

 

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