A prospective: Surface science and catalysis at the nanoscale

Surface science has progressed from its beginnings, which focused on simple materials and adsorbates, to the study of much more complex materials. In this article I focus on the developments in the field of nanoparticle surface science, especially those relating to advances in our understanding of heterogeneous catalysis. Methods to make such materials and to characterise oxidic supports have advanced enormously in the last few years, but efforts in the field are still rather limited and patchy. Such work will expand significantly in the next few years and many new, exciting discoveries await us. Important areas for development include the fabrication of ordered arrays of monodisperse nanoparticles, imaging small metal particles at atomic resolution and carrying such investigations out under high pressure/temperature conditions in order to identify active sites on nanoparticles under realistic conditions.