ABSTRACT
Gold has been attracting growing interest owing to the unique
physicochemical properties generated by nanostructures and to
its potential applications in wide areas of science and technology,
for example, surface plasmonic effects leading to better electronic
and photonic devices, catalysts for air and water purification and
for green chemistry, and biomedicines for imaging, diagnosis, and
disease treatment [1]. In particular, heterogeneous catalysis by gold
nanoparticles (NPs) and clusters has already been launched to the
stage of commercial applications. Accordingly, durability of gold NP
catalysts has become one of the most important concerns. At the
same time, the catalytic mechanism of gold NPs should be clarified
under a variety of conditions, which leads to the improvement of
catalytic performance by gold.
