Novel photocatalytic applications of sub-nanometer gold particles for environmental liquid and gas phase reactions

Ultra small sub-1 nm gold nanoparticles were synthesized, characterized and deposited on TiO(2) Support. They exhibited a remarkable photocatalytic activity for both liquid and gas phase oxidation reactions, which have a significant potential for environmental applications. The NO(2) conversion on such catalysts was 6 times higher as compared to that of unmodified catalysts. This is the first ever application of such small clusters for environmental photocatalysis. The presence of sub-1 nm clusters was confirmed by TEM. MALDI-TOF MS and UV-vis spectroscopy. This work also included the novel use of modified DRIFT spectroscopy for photocatalytic testing as well improvement of known Au clusters synthesis procedures. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.