Catalytic Application of Nano-Gold Catalysts

Book excerpt: Gold, considered catalytically inactive for a long time, is now a fascinating partner of modern chemistry, as scientists such as Bond, Teles, Haruta, Hutchings, Ito and Hayashi opened new perspectives for the whole synthetic chemist community. Recently gold has attracted significant attention due to its advantageous characteristics as a catalytic material and since it allows easy functionalization with biologically active molecules. In this context, when gold is prepared as very small particles, it turns out to be a highly active catalyst. However, such a phenomenon completely disappears when the gold particle size grows into the micrometer range. Therefore, the preparation for obtaining an active gold catalyst is so important. The primary objective of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview of gold metal nanoparticles and their application as promising catalysts.