Platinum Metals Review - Volume 5, Issue 1, 1961

As part of a two-day symposium in Liverpool organised by the Society of Chemical Industry on “The Manufacture and Use of some Catalysts in the Petroleum and Petrochemical Industries”, Mr. H. Connor of Johnson, Matthey & Co., Limited presented a paper on “Platinum Reforming Catalysts”. Dealing both with the use of platinum reforming processes to yield high-octane fuels to meet the requirements of modern internal combustion engines and with the growing production by this route of aromatics as raw materials or intermediates for the chemical industry, the author outlined the principles of platinum reforming and described the major processes that have been developed. A summary of his paper is given here.

The Ministry of Aviation has recently issued Process Specification DTD 931, covering the rhodium plating of silver, copper, steel and aluminium components primarily for electrical and electronic applications. This article reviews the specification and outlines recommended procedures for the successful preparation of rhodium electrodeposits.

In the second part of this article, concluded from the October issue of ‘Platinum Metals Review’, a short account is given of changes in the physical properties of palladium following absorption of hydrogen. The behaviour of certain palladium alloys is compared with that of palladium and alternative methods of approach towards an understanding of the constitution of the hydrides are briefly outlined.

In the course of his long researches Michael Faraday more than once turned his attention to platinum and its properties, and on February 22nd 1861 —when in his 71st year— he delivered his famous ‘Lecture on Platinum’ to the members of the Royal Institution. An abridged version of this address is reprinted here for the historical interest it will undoubtedly have for the metallurgist of today and for the picture it conveys of a great but modest scientist