Gold is a material that has fascinated humankind since it was first discovered. It is the most noble of metals; it does not tarnish on exposure to the atmosphere and retains its beautiful lustre undiminished for millennia. It has been the inspiration for great artworks and also the cause of great conflicts. It is also a metal with high monetary value and, in these current times of high energy costs, gold has increased in value dramatically. Hence, from the perspective of the monetary, art and historical communities, gold is an important metal, something that has high value and is readily traded.rnGold was also the fascination of alchemists as they tried, in vain, to make gold from base metals. However, for mainstream chemists, until recently, gold has presented very little fascination. Its chemical inertness in a bulk state convinced chemists that few, if any, exciting chemistries awaited deeper investigation. Hence, the real wonders of gold chemistry have only recently been discovered and the observation that gold, when sub-divided to the nanoscale, can be exceptionally active as a catalyst, has spurred a great number of discoveries. In tandem with catalysis discoveries, there have been enormous developments in the fabrication and uses of gold nanoparticles that are underpinned by the growing field of structural and theoretical advances that are being made in gold chemistry.
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