The prototypical representatives of the Euryarchaeota-the methanogens-are oxygen sensitive and are thought to occur only in highly reduced, anoxic environments. However, we found methanogens of the genera Methanosarcina and Methanocella to be present in many types of upland soils (including dryland soils) sampled globally. These methanogens could be readily activated by incubating the soils as slurry under anoxic conditions, as seen by rapid methane production within a few weeks, without any additional carbon source. Analysis of the archaeal 16S ribosomal RNA gene community profile in the incubated samples through terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism and quantification through quantitative PCR indicated dominance of Methanosarcina, whose gene copy numbers also correlated with methane production rates. Analysis of the d 13 C of the methane further supported this, as the dominant methanogenic pathway was in most cases aceticlastic, which Methanocella cannot perform. Sequences of the key methanogenic enzyme methyl coenzyme M reductase retrieved from the soil samples before incubation confirmed that Methanosarcina and Methanocella are the dominant methanogens, though some sequences of Methanobrevibacter and Methanobacterium were also detected. The global occurrence of only two active methanogenic archaea supports the hypothesis that these are autochthonous members of the upland soil biome and are well adapted to their environment.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) investigations of supported nanoparticles smaller than 10 nm show a significant shift of the electron binding energy of core levels compared with the bulk values. In this work, such shifts were examined at differently supported and prepared gold nanoparticles for the 4f electron level. Special attention was paid to the influence of reducing pretreatment in hydrogen and, moreover, the influence of different oxide supports. Surprisingly, in most cases, lower binding energies than the Au 4f 7/2 of 84.0 eV were observed depending on the oxidic support as well as the pretreatment conditions. The origin of these differences of the core level values are discussed in terms of different models like electron transfer from the support to the particles, size and geometric effects. It seems that especially geometric factors like the particle shape play an important role.

Titania- and zirconia-supported gold particles of 1−5 nm size, prepared by various routes of synthesis, were employed in the partial hydrogenation of acrolein. In-depth characterization of their structural and electronic properties by electron microscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and optical absorption spectroscopy aimed at disclosing the nature of the active sites controlling the hydrogenation of CO vs CC bonds. The structural characteristics of the catalysts, as mean particle size, size distribution, and dispersion, distinctly depend on the synthesis applied and the oxide support used whereby the highest gold dispersion (D Au = 0.78, Au/TiO2) results from a modified sol−gel technique. For extremely small gold particles on titania and zirconia (1.1 and 1.4 nm mean size), conduction electron spin resonance of the metal and paramagnetic F-centers (trapped electrons in oxygen vacancies) of the support were observed. Besides the influence of the surface geometry on the adsorption mode of the α,β-unsaturated aldehyde, the marked structure sensitivity of the catalytic properties with decreasing particle size is attributed to the electron-donating character of paramagnetic F-centers forming electron-rich gold particles as active sites. The effect of structural and electronic properties due to the quantum size effect of sufficiently small gold particles on the partial hydrogenation is demonstrated.

The active sites of supported gold catalysts, favoring the adsorption of C=O groups of acrolein and subsequent reaction to allyl alcohol, have been identified as edges of gold nanoparticles. After our recent finding that this reaction preferentially occurs on single crystalline particles rather than multiply twinned ones, this paper reports on a new approach to distinguish different features of the gold particle morphology. Elucidation of the active site issue cannot be simply done by varying the size of gold particles, since the effects of faceting and multiply twinned particles may interfere. Therefore, modification of the gold particle surface by indium has been used to vary the active site characteristics of a suitable catalyst, and a selective decoration of gold particle faces has been observed, leaving edges free. This is in contradiction to theoretical predictions, suggesting a preferred occupation of the low-coordinated edges of the gold particles. On the bimetallic catalyst, the desired allyl alcohol is the main product (selectivity 63%; temperature 593 K, total pressure p(total) = 2 MPa). From the experimentally proven correlation between surface structure and catalytic behavior, the edges of single crystalline gold particles have been identified as active sites for the preferred C=O hydrogenation.

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