Highly Dispersed Gold Nanoparticles on Order Silicon Dioxide

Metal catalysts, like those in our automobile catalytic converters, are composed of tiny metal particles anchored into place on highly porous materials called supports. It is becoming more important than ever today to fully understand how these catalysts are prepared. Here at UIC the Regalbuto research group investigates the preparation of these supported metal catalysts. An electron microscope image, which was taken on the JEOL-2010F electron microscope at the Research Resource Center- East at UIC, shows ultra small, nano-sized (2nm diameter) gold particles that have been synthesized on a highly ordered silicon oxide support. This is the first time such small particles in such high abundance have been anchored on this support.