Gold Nanoparticles for Physics, Chemistry and Biology

Abstract

The gold played a great fascination in every century and its use in the form of nanoparticles is related to the history of red-coloured glass born probably in Egypt and Mesopotamia in 1400-1300 BCE. However, the first milestone in the history of gold ruby glass is represented from the Roman Lycurgus cap that, dated to the fourth century has revealed today by electronic microscopy, the presence of minute amounts of gold (about 40 ppm) and silver (about 300 ppm) of 5-100 nm in diameter. It is interesting to underline that gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) exhibit a rich array of interesting and important catalytic properties, which has sparked a huge interest in gold-based systems in several interdisciplinary areas. All the topics of interest on this unusual metal are reported in this book, organized in 13 chapters with an introductory Preface.