Christopher J. Kiely

TL;DR: It is shown that Au/Pd-TiO2 catalysts give very high turnover frequencies (up to 270,000 turnovers per hour) for the oxidation of alcohols, including primary alkyl alcohols and the addition of Au to Pd nanocrystals improved the overall selectivity.

TL;DR: High catalytic activity for carbon monoxide oxidation is correlated with the presence of bilayer clusters that are ∼0.5 nanometer in diameter and contain only ∼10 gold atoms, consistent with that demonstrated previously with the use of model catalyst systems.

TL;DR: Stable functionalised gold nanoparticles are prepared by simultaneous reduction of tetrachloroaurate ions and attachment of bifunctional organic thiol molecules to the growing gold nuclei leading to a material whose chemical behaviour is characterised by the vacant functionality of the bifunctionsal thiol ligand.

TL;DR: It is shown that nanocrystalline gold catalysts can provide tunable active catalysts for the oxidation of alkenes using air, with exceptionally high selectivity to partial oxidation products and significant conversions.

TL;DR: A specific objective of this review article is to motivate researchers to synthesize some of the "designer" bimetallic catalysts with specific nanostructures, inspired from recent advances in the area of materials chemistry, and to utilize them for the transformation of biomass derived materials that are very complex and pose different challenges compared to those of simple organic molecules.