Pure Nanoporous Gold Powder: Synthesis and Catalytic Properties

Synthesis of extremely pure nanoporous system was used to investigate the intrinsic catalytic properties of gold toward oxidation reactions. The poor activity observed contrasts with the high activity reported up to now on nearly identical materials except that they contain superficial impurities resulting from the manufacturing process. This low activity shows that gold alone cannot activate the O−O bond without some influence from a substrate such as charge-transfer processes or specific interfacial sites.