Novel Gold Containing Catalysis

Catalysis is crucially important for the manufacture of goods and infrastructure necessary for the everyday wellbeing of society. This project aims to develop novel catalysts for industrial application and the scientific challenge relates to finding innovative ways to make gold catalysts. The aim is to develop and utilise new procedures that permit controlled synthesis of new nanoparticle alloys. These will be characterised/evaluated in multiple reactions to exploit the potential new electronic structures based on electron transfer between the metallic alloy constituents. Specifically, gold complexes with different morphologies (e.g. amorphous particles to needles) will be prepared and their catalytic activity evaluated in acetylene hydrochlorination. We will also investigate morphological features of Pd and Pt crystallites as catalysts for selective acetylene hydrogenation.