Scientists peel away the mystery behind gold's catalytic prowess

Few materials have exercised as much of a hold on the human imagination, or on human history, as has gold. But for all of its popular uses - money, medals, jewelry and more - gold's potential as a catalyst lay hidden until the 1980s, when Masatake Haruta and Graham Hutchings independently discovered that gold, which had long been considered inactive, could be an extraordinarily good catalyst. Haruta demonstrated the low-temperature oxidation of CO and Hutchings the hydrochlorination of acetylene to vinyl chloride.

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