Platinum Metals Review - Volume 33, Issue 2, 1989

Platinum-rhodium catalysts have proved to be effective in removing carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons from gas turbine exhaust. A new generation of oxidation catalysts with improved activity and thermal stability has been developed and is now available commercially. The performance of these catalysts in the oxidation of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and sulphur dioxide is reported.

Applications of the rhodium-iron resistance thermometer over the last two decades have demonstrated that this sensor has the widest temperature range known; it has been used between 0.01 and 800 K, nearly five orders of magnitude. Recent developments have resulted in the production of a small planar device, which is finding many uses in cryogenic instrumentation.

Rhodium has a higher melting point, greater specific strength and better oxidation resistance than most of the refractory and platinum group metals but, to date, neither rhodium nor its alloys have found wide application as structural materials. During a recent study of rhodium alloys a vast amount of data was collected, and a selection of this information is recorded here. An investigation of the mechanical properties of some of these alloys indicates that a number of them could be useful for specific applications that take place under arduous conditions.

Following the discovery of platinum in the Viceroyalty of New Granada at the beginning of the 18th Century, its use to degrade gold forced the colonial authorities to improve their existing methods of separating and analysing the precious metals. Using information from the Royal Mint of Santa Fé de Bogotá, the various ways of separating these metals are now considered, including the little-known method of inquartation.