Gold can make things happen. This has been true since it was first discovered; it looks precious, it’s relatively rare, and it can be easily transformed into items for trade. A symbol of wealth and status for thousands of years, it was originally made into coins in 550BC, and has a history of being used to create valuable items such as jewellery.
Research published by Chemical Engineering PhD student Motaz Khawaji and Professor David Chadwick has demonstrated how gold can make things happen on a chemical level, by using gold particles to create reactions. Their work has recently been featured on the covers of two academic journals, Catalysis Science & Technology and ChemCatChem. Here we take a look at how they use gold nanoparticles and how they could be utilised by industry.