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World Gold Council invests heavily in nanotechnology

Published: Monday 13 July 2009

‘New technologies are likely to make [gold] more appealing,’ says Dr Richard Holliday, head of industrial applications for the World Gold Council (WGC). ‘[The potential of nanoparticulate gold], he said, ‘flies in the face of everything we are taught about the metal when we are young. If you do chemistry at school you are told it is inert and you can't do anything with it, but the ability to control things on [the nanoscale] almost creates a new material.'

The World Gold Council follows the advances of a growing number of applications of gold nanoparticles with great excitement; current applications include:

  • capturing mercury in coal-fired power plants
  • diesel-engine additive (increasingly replacing conventional platinum catalysts),
  • removal of CO in hydrogen fuel cells, and
  • medical applications, particularly within diagnostic devices.
 
'The rationale for the auto industry is that gold is a cost-saving opportunity. It's not very often you can say that, but you can basically use less platinum, which is more expensive than gold,' said Holliday. According to the original interview with American Chronicle, WGC has invested heavily in Nanostellar.
 

 

Tags: World Gold Council, WGC, investment, nano-Gold, healthcare, nanomedicine, environmental benefits