This book presents the major developments in hydrogen-related catalytic and electrocatalytic reactions over gold-based materials over the last decade, including many of the advances made by academic and industrial researchers. Gold-based catalysts with potentially exciting new applications in hydrogen technology (e.g. purification of hydrogen, anode/cathode electrodes) are being investigated at a much higher rate than even before. A variety of techniques to synthesize, characterize and evaluate these materials is being employed. The book will be of interest to all those working in catalysis/green chemistry, in particular, to advanced level researchers in catalysis using gold-based materials. It is hoped that specialists in one reaction will read with interest the chapters on the neighbouring expertise. The book is also meant for PhD-students and advanced students interested in this area.
About the Author: Dr. George Avgouropoulos graduated from the University of Patras with a diploma in Chemical Engineering (1997). Post graduate studies were carried out in Chemical Engineering Department of University of Patras in collaboration with Institute of Chemical Engineering and High Temperature Chemical Processes (FORTH/ICE-HT), under the supervision of Prof. Verykios and Research Director Dr. Ioannides, respectively. He received a MSc diploma in Energy and Environment (2003) and a PhD diploma in Chemical Engineering (2003) from University of Patras. Since July 2003 he works as a research associate at FORTH/ICE-HT. In June 2010 he was elected a Lecturer at the Materials Science Department of University of Patras in the field of Materials engineering in microphase-nanophase or/and molecular or/and biomolecular materials or/and devices - experimental direction. In the midterm he was a postdoctoral fellow of National Fellowships Foundation (2006-2007), assistant professor at the Technological Educational Institution of Kalamata in Greece (2005-2010) and fixed term Lecturer at the Materials Science Department (2008 - today). He has co-authored 32 research papers and has received more than 1200 citations. He has presented more than 48 research papers in scientific conferences, while he co-holds two international patents. In addition, three of his papers have been recognised as Top-50 most cited articles by Elsevier. Dr. Tatyana Tabakova is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Catalysis, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Her main research interests are in the field of design and selection of heterogeneous catalysts, relation between structure and catalytic activity, mechanism of heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Since 1995 her activities are focused on preparation and characterization of nanosized gold catalysts supported on different metal oxides for reaction related to environmental protection: high-purity hydrogen production by water gas shift reaction and preferential CO oxidation, oxidation of hydrocarbons, CO oxidation. She is co-author of more than 70 scientific papers mostly published in international journals and 4 Bulgarian patents. These papers have received more than 1500 citations. The results of her research activities have been presented at about 100 national and international conferences.