Research Project Outline
Although gold is chemically inert, its reactivity dramatically changes when it becomes smaller than 2 nm in diameter being composed of less than 300 atoms. These gold clusters are deposited on a variety of support materials including base metal oxides, carbons having different nano-structures, and polymers as Soft Materialls in order to tune the catalytic performance in a much wider scope. New catalytic processes are exploited in an attempt to expand the frontiers of green sustainable chemistry.