Organic stabilisers, such as thiols, thioethers, amines and polymers (i.e. polyvinylalcohol) have been used for the stabilisation of metal nanoparticles. The catalytic performance of polymer- and thiol- capped metallic nanoparticles has been explored and it has been found that apart from the morphological characteristics of the inorganic nanoparticle, the catalytic activity increases when the reactant gets closer to the nanoparticle surface. Thus, the structure and configuration of the surface ligands can play a critical role in catalysis because they determine the accessibility of the reactant to the nanoparticle surface. INS spectroscopy will help us to extract reliable information about the influence of ligand capping in catalysis.