Research reveals that gold's apparent inertness is due to a protective surface reconstruction into a hexagonal pattern, while a square lattice form is catalytically active. Nanoparticles lack the atoms for this reconstruction, revealing gold's reactive nature.
<p>Gold is weird. It's one of the few metals that doesn’t really oxidize. Even silver and copper—from the same column of the periodic table—form weak oxides. Naively, you might expect that gold would tarnish just like silver. Gold also sits right next to platinum, but it has none of that metal’s catalytic properties.</p>
<p>Then came gold nanoparticles that acted like catalysts, and we were confused by their apparent willingness to take part in chemical reactions.</p>
<p>Now, a pair of scientists has <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/g3bc-t1qv" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained that gold’s inertness</a> isn’t inherent to the atom but rather to the surfaces that gold crystals form. Before we get to the results, let’s first take a look at the traditional explanation for gold’s inertness and why an inert material that has no catalytic activity suddenly acts as a catalyst when in its nanoparticle form.</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/gold-isnt-inert-it-just-has-bodyguards-protecting-it/">Read full article</a></p>
<p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/gold-isnt-inert-it-just-has-bodyguards-protecting-it/#comments">Comments</a></p>
# Gold isn’t inert, it just has bodyguards protecting it
Source: [https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/gold-isnt-inert-it-just-has-bodyguards-protecting-it/](https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/gold-isnt-inert-it-just-has-bodyguards-protecting-it/)
To confirm this, the researchers studied the behavior of an oxygen molecule on each type of gold surface\. They asked how much molecular oxygen would stick to the surface, and for the molecules that did stick, what energy is required to cause the oxygen molecule to split\. They showed that the surface structure commonly observed in bulk gold—a hexagonal pattern—does not hold onto oxygen very strongly, and the oxygen’s structure is not deformed\. That means it still takes a lot of energy to split the oxygen molecule into two atoms that are ready to react\.
On the other hand, if the gold structure is a square pattern, oxygen molecules readily stick to the surface and are deformed to the point of splitting, leaving them available to react \(indeed, under these conditions, gold will oxidize as well\)\. The researchers estimate that the square lattice gold surface is as active as common catalytic metals, such as platinum\.
## Hiding your sensitive bits
Gold surfaces are also quite active in the sense that gold atoms will readily rearrange themselves on the surface\. By shuffling around, they change an exposed flat square lattice into a slightly rougher inactive hexagonal lattice\. But the change, called surface reconstruction, can’t happen in just any way\. Instead, the atoms move to form a 2D repeating structure that covers the exposed face, and the area required to form a complete unit of the repeating structure is quite large\. On a chunk of gold, this is not an issue because there are plenty of atoms to go around, so each surface ends up almost completely inert\.
On nanoparticles, the story is different\. The limited number of atoms means there are not enough atoms or space for surface reconstruction\. So a material known for its inertness suddenly shows its true colors and starts to react and act as a catalyst\.
These studies show just how intricate the details of surface chemistry and catalysis can be\. Inert metals become active and then return to inertness simply due to a change in material volume\. It also opens new avenues for research on catalysis, though I don’t imagine gold will become the catalyst of choice any time soon\.
*Physical Review Letters*, 2026, DOI:[10\.1103/g3bc\-t1qv](https://dx.doi.org/10.1103/g3bc-t1qv)
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