Up till now gold was being used in jewelry due to its inert properties but now the field of nanotechnology is too working on it. Researchers had been working on gold clusters for a very long time and since gold clusters have a small number of atoms they exhibit different properties and chemical reactivity which makes them a powerful catalyst.
Georgia Tech researchers had been slogging on gold clusters for a number of years and coupled with researchers from around the world it has been possible to unravel the structures of gold clusters from 13 to 24 atoms. You would be amazed to know that on reaching twenty four atoms the gold clusters look very similar to a capped tubular cigar.
Starting out as two dimensional structures, the clusters change to three dimensional hollow cages, then change into a face centered cubic tetrahedral structure and on reaching twenty four atoms turn into capped tubular cigar shape.
You never know what shapes the gold cluster would achieve when they reach probably thirty or forty atoms. Let’s wait and watch.
Via zdnet
