Chemists create switchable gold catalyst
Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - 22:30
in Physics & Chemistry
A gold catalyst whose behavior can be controlled by the addition of acid or metal ion cofactors has been designed by chemists. They have developed a catalyst with significantly enhanced properties based on a rotaxane, in which a gold catalyst is embedded in the cavity formed by threading a ring shaped molecule around a dumbell shaped axle. On its own , the rotaxane gold catalyst is unreactive but the addition of ions that bind into a pocket in the catalyst framework leads to rapid reactions.