Search results for "Quantum size"

Quantum size effects in ambient CO oxidation catalysed by ligand-protected gold clusters

2009

Finely dispersed nanometre-scale gold particles are known to catalyse several oxidation reactions in aerobic, ambient conditions. The catalytic activity has been explained by various complementary mechanisms, including support effects, particle-size-dependent metal-insulator transition, charging effects, frontier orbital interactions and geometric fluxionality. We show, by considering a series of robust and structurally well-characterized ligand-protected gold clusters with diameters between 1.2 and 2.4 nm, that electronic quantum size effects, particularly the magnitude of the so-called HOMO-LUMO energy gap, has a decisive role in binding oxygen to the nano-catalyst in an activated form. T…

Quantum size effect in single-crystalline bismuth nanorods

2017