Platinum Metals Review - Volume 40, Issue 1, 1996

The background and history of the connection between the world's largest platinum producing group, the South African company Anglo American Platinum Corporation, and the United Kingdom company Johnson Matthey, is explained. The commitment of Amplats to meet the expected growth in demand for the six platinum group metals in the future and the role of Johnson Matthey in marketing these metals, and in contributing towards the development of advanced technological applications for them, will ensure that the needs of the industrial platinum users throughout the world will continue to be satisfied.

Results of the syntheses and applications of platinum metals complex catalysts, which are uniquely active for the liquid-phase hydrogenation of unsaturated organic compounds, such as olefins, dienes, acetylenes and aromatics, are described. The platinum metals complex catalysts are synthesised by the interaction between platinum metals compounds and aliphatic amines with sufficiently long alkyl groups (C8 and higher). Similarities are shown in the production of palladium-, platinum-, and rhodium-based catalysts, which involves the formation of hydride ligands, using the hydrogen atoms of the alkyl groups, and the specific catalytic behaviour of each metal is described. Examples of synergistic effects for these platinum group metal catalysts and some of their related systems are discussed.

The second European Congress on Catalysis (EUROPACAT-II) was held in the MECC Centre, Maastricht, The Netherlands, from 3rd to 8th September, 1995, and was attended by more than 750 participants. There were 13 separate symposia, covering all aspects of catalysis, with three running simultaneously Two poster sessions contained a large number of presentations. This report covers aspects of the work presented featuring the platinum group metals.

The growth in research in molecular sized electronic devices in the very recent past, for functions such as optical switches, fast recording devices, miniaturised sensors and molecular computers, has created a need for equally small connectors which comply with the stringent requirements of such structures to link them to the surrounding assembly. Among materials that are suitable for the terminal subunits are polypyridyl complexes of ruthenium(II), osmium(II) and rhenium(I), linked together by bridging polyynes. The triplet excited states of these complexes have long lives and are formed under visible-light illumination. Their metal-to-ligand charge-transfer character allows electron promotion from the metal centre to the bridging ligand, giving directional electron transfer. Complexes based on ruthenium(II) or osmium(II) seem more promising due to their amenable absorption and emission spectral profiles and their facile oxidation-reduction processes. This paper looks at the development of the molecular materials and structures that are required to act as molecular-scale connectors enabling molecular-scale electronic devices to function successfully.