Chemistry Article Summary

Golds magic minute\n20 August 2008\nA new grand pinch accelerator developed by UK chemists give the sack catalyze hydrocarbon oxidization, using O2 as the only oxidant. But throttle particle size is captious - above 2nm diameter, the catalyst loses every(prenominal) activity.\nThe catalyst was developed by Richard Lambert and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, who use styrene oxidation as a try place reaction. The squad found that the reaction didnt invite any additional oxidants much(prenominal) as peroxides. Oxygen molecules adsorbed to the fundsen particles, and then dissociated to give unity type O atoms that initiated the styrene oxidation. Styrene is a very good test molecule which can be handled easily, says Marc Armbrüster, who also works at the University of Cambridge and collaborates with the group. Oxygenated hydrocarbons argon also priceless intermediates for industry.\nThe prospect of selective oxidation using molecular oxygen without the additio n of additives over a new catalyst is exciting, comments Jeroen new wave Bokhoven, from the Institute for Chemical and bioengineering at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. There seems to be dummy for trying the catalyst out on more systems and for upward(a) the selectivity, van Bokhoven adds.\nThe catalyst consists of 55-atom gold clusters, which form nanometer-sized particles on sulky supports. The Au55 particles are so-called magic go clusters that turn back just the right number of atoms for very stable geometries, do them ideally suited to catalysis.\nHowever, the particle size of the catalyst is critical. trance 1.4nm diameter particles were effective and hardy catalysts, particles 2nm or larger take no catalytic activity. The look forers employ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to evince that the nano-clusters have a various electronic organize to come out gold. As the particles become smaller, their electronic body structure changes significantly, explains Armbrüster. The organic reactant only rachitic adsorbs to the catalyst, so that its electronic structure is not perturbed.\nWe dont know exactly how the catalyst works that we really want to generalise what is going on, says Armbrüster. We think that quantum alchemy might be the easiest trend to find out what is happening, he adds. We also need to do further lab work, for modelling to discover the catalysts lifetime and to consecrate the influence of different loadings of the catalyst.\nThe research team hopes that its gold clusters depart provide a dispatch to the synthesis of robust gold catalysts with practical applications for synthetic chemistry. We are quite some mode off an industrial catalyst, precisely we see no obstacle to gold clusters...If you want to gear up a full essay, score it on our website:

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