The literature on both platinum and palladium as catalysts is very extensive, and these two metals are widely employed in a variety of reactions on a commercial scale. The catalytic properties of the other members of the platinum group of metals are by no means so fully appreciated, nor are they employed for this purpose to anything like the same extent. But scattered throughout the world’s scientific literature are quite a number of records of research carried out with one or other of these metals as catalysts in many different types of reactions.

An admirable survey of this literature has now been prepared and published by the International Nickel Company Inc., New York, as an Annotated Bibliography on Ruthenium, Rhodium and Iridium as Catalysts. Compiled by Ann E. Rea and Marguerite Bebbington of the company’s Development and Research Division, the bibliography contains more than three hundred abstracts of papers and patent specifications, covering the period from 1881 to mid-1959. They are arranged in sections dealing respectively with the hydrogenation of organic compounds, other reactions of organic compounds, reactions with inorganic compounds, and catalyst properties.

The variety of catalytic reactions for which these metals have been investigated is extremely wide, and the collection of this considerable amount of data into one carefully arranged volume will unquestionably provide a most useful source of information for chemists and chemical engineers concerned with reactions in which one or other of these metals may provide the most suitable catalyst.