Platinum Metals Review - Volume 8, Issue 4, 1964

The modern glass industry is a major user of the platinum metals. When correctly used, platinum and its alloys are practically unaffected by continuous contact with molten glass but if reducing conditions are allowed to arise it is possible for reactions to occur which may lead to contamination. This article describes how such failures have been investigated in the Research Laboratories of Pilkington Brothers Limited and draws attention to the importance of avoiding reducing conditions in operation.

The Third International Congress on Catalysis, organised most efficiently by the Royal Dutch Chemical Society, took place in Amsterdam from July 20 to 25. It was attended by 828 active members from 31 countries including 141 from the USA, 29 from the USSR, and 115 from Great Britain. Of the ninety-eight papers presented, twenty-seven refer to the use of the platinum group metals as catalysts, and these are reviewed here.

The platinum metals occupy a strategic position in the transition element series and current interest in the bonding processes of this complex group of metals places particular emphasis on accurate vapour pressure determinations. Some of the platinum metals, are, of course, being used increasingly in vacuum deposition processes and the subject is not therefore without its practical implications. This article presents a critical survey of the most recent determinations of vapour pressures and heats of vaporisation.

Overvoltage effects at platinum electrodes may often be reduced by “activating” the surfaces by alternate oxidising and reducing treatments. The “activity” so produced soon deteriorates, and the phenomena are now ascribed to a thin unstable layer of disoriented platinum atoms which are formed on the surface and then rapidly reorient themselves.

The likelihood that the platinum metal phthalocyanines might prove to be of commercial importance as homogeneous catalysts as well as of academic interest prompted an investigation into the preparation of these compounds and their subsequent characterisation.