Superfluid helium nanoreactor takes single atom catalysis understanding to the next level
Gold alters bond energies to catalyse dissociation reaction
Chemists have isolated a gold atom in a super-cooled liquid helium nanoreactor to create a single atom catalyst that avoids surface interactions. The gold is held in a van der Waals complex with the reactant, in this case a diol molecule. Using a combination of mass spectrometry and theoretical calculations, the team has unpicked how gold catalyses a reaction that splits the diol in two.