Platinum Metals Review - Volume 20, Issue 4, 1976

The established commercial techniques for producing pure hydrogen are not always practicable when relatively small quantities of the gas are required at remote locations. This paper describes the development of a robust mobile generator, required for meteorological purposes by the military, which can readily be adapted for commercial use and which can operate in extreme climatic conditions.

Highly dispersed metallic clusters composed of two or more metals within Group VIII, or combinations of one or more Group VIII metals with a Group IB metal, when supported on a carrier, form catalysts of considerable theoretical interest which also have practical industrial applications. The simpler bimetallic clusters have provided useful model systems for investigating basic concepts and have demonstrated that their catalytic behaviour can be very different for different types of reactions. The idea of polymetallic clusters could be applicable to a number of combinations of elements, so increasing the range of catalytically useful systems.

A symposium held in London in June, organised by the Electrochemical Technology Group of the Society of Chemical Industry, provided an opportunity for discussion of developments over the last ten years in the operation of diaphragm cells for chlorine production. Many of the papers presented outlined improvements in cell design and in diaphragm materials. Dimensionally stable anodes, made of titanium coated with a platinum-group metal oxide, are used in all the cells reviewed.

The four-yearly International Congress on Catalysis provides an opportunity to survey the dominating importance of the platinum metals in catalysis and to sense the major areas of growth and interest. This article reviews some of the papers relevant to the platinum metals that were presented.

This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the trans effect, one of the most fundamental principles in the synthetic chemistry of the platinum metals, as well as the tenth anniversary of the death of its discoverer, Il’ya Il’ich Chernyaev, one of the Soviet Union’s most distinguished scientists and the man who was undisputedly this century’s most prolific worker on the coordination chemistry of platinum.