Nanoporous gold (NPG) with sponge-like structures has been studied by atomic-scale and microsecond-resolution environmental transmission electron microscopy (ETEM) combined with ab initio energy calculations by a Japanese research team (Kamiuchi et al., Nature Communications, 2018. DOI: doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04412-4). Peculiar surface dynamics were found in the reaction environment for the oxidation of CO at room temperature, involving residual silver in the NPG leaves as well as gold and oxygen atoms, especially on {110} facets. The NPG is thus classified as a novel self-activating catalyst. The essential structure unit for catalytic activity was identified as Au– AgO surface clusters, implying that the NPG is regarded as a nano-structured silver oxide catalyst supported on the matrix of NPG, or an inverse catalyst of a supported gold nanoparticulate (AuNP) catalyst. Hence, the catalytically active structure in the gold catalysts (supported AuNP and NPG catalysts) can now be experimentally unified in lowtemperature CO oxidation, a step forward towards elucidating the fascinating catalysis mechanism of gold.

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近期文献亮点

日本研究团队（Kamiuchi 等人，Nature Communications，2018 年）通过原子级和微秒分辨率环境透射电子显微镜 (ETEM) 结合从头算能量计算研究了具有海绵状结构的纳米多孔金 (NPG)。 DOI：doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04412-4）。在室温下 CO 氧化的反应环境中发现了特殊的表面动力学，涉及 NPG 叶片中的残留银以及金和氧原子，尤其是在 {110} 面上。因此，NPG 被归类为新型自活化催化剂。催化活性的基本结构单元被确定为 Au-AgO 表面簇，这意味着 NPG 被视为负载在 NPG 基体上的纳米结构氧化银催化剂，或负载型金纳米颗粒 (AuNP) 催化剂的反相催化剂。因此，金催化剂（负载型 AuNP 和 NPG 催化剂）中的催化活性结构现在可以在低温 CO 氧化中进行实验统一，朝着阐明金的迷人催化机制迈出了一步。