We report a direct observation of the intrinsic magnetization behavior of Au in thiol-capped gold nanoparticles with permanent magnetism at room temperature. Two element specific techniques have been used for this purpose: X-ray magnetic circular dichroism on the L edges of the Au and 197Au Mössbauer spectroscopy. Besides, we show that silver and copper nanoparticles synthesized by the same chemical procedure also present room-temperature permanent magnetism. The observed permanent magnetism at room temperature in Ag and Cu dodecanethiol-capped nanoparticles proves that the physical mechanisms associated to this magnetization process can be extended to more elements, opening the way to new and still not-discovered applications and to new possibilities to research basic questions of magnetism.

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We first achieved direct synthesis of propylene carbonate from CO 2 and 1,2-propanediol in excellent yield (>99%) using a carboxylation/hydration cascade catalyst of CeO 2 with 2cyanopyridine. The catalyst system can be applied to syntheses of various cyclic carbonates, including 6-membered ring carbonates that are difficult to synthesize in high yields (62−>99%).