抄録
As well known, gold is the noblest of all the metals. That was clarified unambiguously by the ab initio first principles calculations for the dissociative adsorption of H2 on bulk Au. However, it was found that gold becomes pronouncedly active for oxidation of CO, water-gas-shift reaction and so on, if the size decreases to a nano-meter range. Ever since, the growth processes and the electronic properties of gold nano-particles have attracted much attention in the context of the mechanism to enhance the catalytic activities. In this paper, we show our recent findings on the growth processes and electronic properties of Au nano-particles on metal-oxide supports, which were analyzed by high-resolution medium energy ion scattering combined with photoelectron spectroscopy. The catalytic activity in terms of size and electronic property of Au nano-particles are discussed in detail.
