Platinum Metals Review - Volume 24, Issue 1, 1980

At the International Conference on the Behaviour of High Temperature Alloys in Aggressive Environments, held in October at Petten in the Netherlands under the sponsorship of Bond voor Materialenkennis, NL, the Commission of the European Communities Joint Research Centre, Petten Establishment, and the U.K. Metals Society, recent developments in the application of high temperature materials were reported. This paper is based upon a presentation made at the conference and describes the concept of using platinum group metals as alloying constituents in new nickel-based superalloys. The alloys developed have considerably enhanced resistance to oxidation and corrosion in aggressive environments at high temperatures, and also exhibit mechanical properties which are equal, and sometimes superior, to their conventional counterparts.

Catalytic combustion is now a well established method of controlling a wide range of air pollution problems. A relatively new and improved process for the production of plastic injection mouldings resulted in the discharge to the working environment of small, but potentially offensive, volumes of malodorous or toxic fumes. This article very briefly describes the new process, then shows how existing well tried technology has been adapted to solve the pollution problem economically.

This paper is based upon an introductory address given by Dr. Acres to a residential course on Characterisation of Catalysts organised by Professor J. M. Thomas and Dr. R. M. Lambert for representatives from industry, government research centres and universities and held last year in King’s College, Cambridge.

This article describes some of the experimental evidence that suggests a useful analogy can be made between the transition metal cluster carbonyls and the corresponding carbon monoxide-metal chemisorption systems. This analogy is interpreted using recent electronic structure results in metal physics, leading to a theoretical framework in which cluster chemistry can be approached.

Two major contributions to the discovery of platinum and its identification as a distinct metal were made by Swedish chemists during a short span of years in the eighteenth century when chemistry and metallurgy were flourishing and when several other new elements were isolated and their properties determined.