Gold nanoparticlesprovide a “ smart Earth’s surface ” that can trap sulfur compound in wines , improving their aromas , new research suggest . If you ’re worry about what this will do to the monetary value , however , the reply may actually not be that much , as the particles – and the speck they capture – can be remove and used repeatedly .

South Australian winegrowers are currently gloating that a medium - priced Cabernet Sauvignon has beaten thousands of higher - priced challenger to get ahead aninternational trophy . Such victories have come in part because Australia has invested heavily in scientific viticulture , developing creature to undertake disease and lack of water .

Now , Flinders University ’s Australian Wine Research Institute has turned to the job of removing unwanted impurity , specifically sulphur compound . Progress on this front has been announce in npj Science of Food .

Dr Agnieszka Mierczynska - Vasilev and co - writer coated surface with a plasma polymer and stuck 68 - nanometer - wide-eyed amber particles to it . Despite atomic number 79 ’s condition as an unreactive metallic element , the particles bind powerfully to a multifariousness of sulfur compounds , including hydrogen sulfide ( lousy ballock gas ) and more complex mote such as methanethiol ( CH3SH ) .

“ A key benefit of the new approach is that it is easily deployable and retrievable . Essentially there ’s a one - step process where the impertinent surface is tote up immediately to the wine-colored and then get rid of after a certain time period , ” Mierczynska - Vasilev said in astatement . The authors see succeeding potential in contribute the nanosurfaces to promotion materials , as well as filtration gimmick .

Sulfur ’s an important constituent in its lieu , but there ’s a understanding Western culture associates it with hell and mischief-making – the smell is pretty unpleasant . little quantity can bankrupt a nutrient , particularly one as nuanced as wine , and wine merchant spend a band on removing as much as they can . The issue is perplex by the fact some fickle sulfur compound contribute fruity characteristics to wines that are often consider desirable .

Copper is currently added to vino to polish off sulfur compounds , despite leaving an unwanted taste of its own and have maximal legal concentrations in major market because of health concern .

In a 12 tribulation , the nanosurfaces systematically dispatch the same or more H sulphide from both white and ruddy wines than copper fining , although the remainder were seldom statistically significant . Meanwhile , the nanoparticles did n’t affect suitable atomic number 16 compound .

amber was take both because its prop are gentle to command at the nanoscale and because it ’s know to stick to to sulfur - hydrogen trammel . The big surface area to book of nanoparticles means tiny total can becharm a pot of compounds , so the cost in gold is small , even aside from the potential drop to brush up and reuse .

For those more draw in by the idea of displaying wealth by wasting resources , as using noticeable amounts of amber might bring , there ’s always Goldschläger .

The study is published innpj Science of Food .