Platinum Metals Review - Volume 13, Issue 1, 1969

This article describes a novel process for the recovery of platinum lost in ammonia oxidation plants for the manufacture of nitric acid. The process, based on the finding that the platinum lost is in vapour form, is particularly suitable for medium and high pressure plants in which the present methods of recovery are relatively inefficient.

The discovery three years ago of the first well-defined complex compound containing the nitrogen molecule – a complex of ruthenium – aroused great interest in such compounds and in their relation to nitrogen fixation. Since then a number of other nitrogen complexes have been obtained, but as yet, despite reports to the contrary, attempts to reduce their nitrogen to ammonia have been unsuccessful. In this article the author, who is Director of the Agricultural Research Council ‘s Unit of Nitrogen Fixation, puts into perspective the considerable amount of work now being done in this field, which may eventually point the way to a mechanism by which atmospheric nitrogen may be fixed and then reduced to yield ammonia and, for example, amines for the plastics industry.

The scale of operations at Rustenburg Platinum Mines has been extended many times over the last thirty years to meet increasing demand, the most recent expansion programme providing for an output of one million ounces of platinum a year. This article describes the mineral resources available and the mining methods and extraction processes in use to provide the world ‘s largest source of the platinum metals.

A General Discussion of the Faraday Society was held at the University of Liverpool last September on the subject of “Homogeneous Catalysis with Special Reference to Hydrogenation and Oxidation”. Of the eighteen papers presented for discussion, six related particularly to platinum metal salts and complexes, five being concerned with hydrogenation or hydrogen transfer and one with oxidation. These papers are reviewed here.