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This perspective article is based on a plenary lecture delivered by the author at Europacat 2023 in Prague on 29th August in recognition of the Boudart Award of EFCATS in 2021. The article charts the journey taken by the author in the discovery and application of gold catalysts over the preceding 40 years of research. Five topics are discussed. The first three parts describe three facets of monometallic gold catalysts. (1) CO oxidation and the hierarchy of activity of gold species supported on a reducible oxide Fe2O3; (2) acetylene hydrochlorination for the manufacture of vinyl chloride monomer using highly dispersed gold cations supported on carbon; (3) methane oxidation using molecular oxygen with gold nanoparticles dispersed on the zeolite H-ZSM-5. These first three parts emphasise that the active species of a gold catalyst is dependent on the reaction being catalysed and it is not a one size fits all for this catalysis. The final two parts concern gold palladium bimetallic catalysts. (4) alcohol oxidation and the new Cooperative Redox Enhancement effect (CORE); and (5) the use of in situ generation of hydrogen peroxide to enable new oxidative cascade processes. These examples demonstrate the rich tapestry that catalysis by gold can provide to the catalysis community globally, both from an academic and an industrial perspective as well as the societal impact that has been achieved by the commercialisation of gold catalysts.
Graham J. Hutchings (Sat,) studied this question.