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Friday, 19th June 2009 (1078 views)

UK chemists have used gold in a study to determine the effects of interacting alkenes with transition metals.

Researchers at the University of Bristol and the University of Glasgow have employed the precious metal in an effort to explore if strained alkenes will help to stabilise a bond between metals and alkenes, Chemie reports.

They discovered that using gold-alkene cationic systems can give information on the structure of such substances, a move that may benefit the field of heterogeneous catalysis - which provide a surface for a chemical reaction to take place.

"Our work has just scratched the surface of this important interaction, but our observations have implications for the reactivity of alkenes at gold centres," Christopher Russell of the University of Bristol was quoted as saying.

He noted that the development could also lead to progress in the nanotechnology sector, in which gold has recently been used by scientists in the US as part of a study into the creation of a new superatom.

 

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