Fundamental calculations on the surface area determination of supported gold nanoparticles by alkanethiol adsorption

Surface area determination is a crucial step for the characterization of the activity of noble metal catalysts. Not only the development of useful determination methods but foremost the understanding of surface properties and their conversion into mathematical expressions are essential to obtain reliable results. A selective method to gain access to the specific surface area of gold on oxidic supports is the chemisorption of alkanethiol from suspensions. Therefore, the concentration of a 1-dodecanthiol solution before and after immersion of supported gold catalysts was determined by gas chromatography. To convert the concentration information into a specific surface area, the surface coverage, the surface atom concentration, the interatomic Au-Au distance, and the particle morphology were considered. Further calculations afforded the determination of a mean particle diameter. A good agreement was found between gold particle sizes obtained from transmission electron microscopy and thiol adsorption. The given mathematical expressions are highly valuable for a broad range of chemisorption methods and noble metal catalysts.