Miscellaneous

Gold-based catalysts have attracted great interest for diverse

reactions such as CO oxidation [1], propene oxidation [2], and

alcohol [3] and polyol [4] liquid-phase oxidation. This constant

fervor on gold-based catalysts started with the pioneer work of the

Haruta [5] and Hutchings [6] groups, who demonstrated that gold

is a catalytically active metal. To obtain highly active Au catalysts, it

was compulsory to achieve proper metal dispersion (i.e., small gold

nanoparticles [AuNPs] ranged between 1 and 20 nm). For gold, this

represents high limiting factors, but up to now, severalmethods have

been set up to prepare active heterogeneous gold catalysts.