New Generation of Gold Catalysts: Nanoporous Foams and Tubes—Is Unsupported Gold Catalytically Active?

Gold fever: Gold turns out to be catalytically very active, provided that either one or two of the three conditions shown in the graphic are fulfilled. In CO oxidation at room temperature even unsupported gold is active in the presence of alkaline water. The active states of gold in the gold catalysts reported so far can be classified into four groups: bulk gold, nanoparticles, clusters or thin layers with specific sizes, and cations.