Full Text for Volume 47 Number 2 (April 2003)

Among items appearing in this issue are the following:

The procedures needed to obtain the best combination of high strength and plasticity in FePd alloy are described for wire samples undergoing a preliminary heavy plastic deformation, with some being annealed. FePd and alloys NiPt, CoPt and CuAu adopt a L1₀ superstructure after the deformation. By comparison, alloys Pd₃Fe, Pt₃Co and Cu₃Au adopt the L1₂ superstructure and do not possess these optimum properties. Alloy microstructures were studied at the Institute of Metal Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, by B. A. Greenberg, N. A. Kruglikov, L. A. Rodionova and A. Yu. Volkov from specimens made and tested at the Ekaterinburg Nonferrous Metals Processing Plant, Russia, by L. G. Grokhovskaya, G. M. Gushchin and I. N. Sakhanskaya. Further work showed that the yield stress in single crystals of ordered FePd alloy shows an anomalous temperature effect.

FePd is ferromagnetic, has a shape memory (SM) effect and is used in actuators. Researchers at the Himeji Institute of Technology and Osaka Municipal Technical Research Institute, Japan, and the University of Washington, U.S.A., while being interested in a magnetic-field induced SM effect, fabricated and investigated the thermal SM effect in thin film FePd alloys. A diaphragm-shaped 1 µm thick FePd film on a thin silica substrate had perfectly reversible ballooning behaviour for over 50 cycles on heating and cooling. The SM hysteresis transformation loop was ~ 4°C and the martensite-start temperature was 43°C.

Professor R. H. Crabtree of Yale University, U.S.A., the winner of the Johnson Matthey Rhodium Bicentenary Competition, reports on his ongoing work on the rhodium-based catalytic production of aromatic compounds. New routes have been created to arene compounds by looking at CH activation chemistry.

Researchers at universities in Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina have synthesised new Ru(II) complexes that display activity against Chagas’ disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. The complexes contain a Ru atom coordinated to a semicarbazone molecule. The activity of these complexes against in vitro T. cruzi cultures is being investigated.

Methods of recovering platinoid material from spent nuclear fuel are reviewed by Zdenek Kolarik, formerly of Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany, and Edouard V. Renard of A. A. Bochvar All-Russian Institute of Inorganic Materials, Moscow, Russia. In this first paper, they look at techniques of chemical recovery for fission palladium, rhodium and ruthenium, with most emphasis on the commonly used Purex process, but also other methods of solvent extraction, ion exchange and sorption, electrolysis, precipitation, redox reactions, and pyrochemistry. Separation processes will be examined later.

Palladium-phosphine-polystyrene-poly(ethylene glycol) resins have been prepared and successfully tested for various catalytic transformations in water, such as allylic substitution, hydroxycarbonylation of aryl halides, asymmetric allylic substitution, etc., by scientists at the Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki, Japan. The catalysts were recoverable and reusable without significant loss of activity and selectivity.

Highly efficient electroluminescent polymers, for polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs), have been prepared by scientists at the National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan, by grafting iridium phosphorescent complexes as dopants and carbazole as charge transport moieties onto alkyl side chains of fully conjugated polyfluorene polymers. The fabricated PLEDs emit red light with high efficiency and also broad band light with blue, green and red peaks.

Work on the photocatalytic purification of water and air contaminated with organic pollutants is reviewed by S.-K. Lee and A. Mills from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. The effects of platinum and palladium deposits on a titania semiconductor surface in these processes are examined. They identify many factors and variables affecting the success of these processes.

A new means to detect methane is described by scientists at the University of Southampton, England. Nanostructured electrochemically deposited Pd films on silicon substrates are identified as effective and stable devices for detecting methane in air. The pellistor devices use little power and have a controllable structure. They give a linear response to a methane concentration of 0-2.5% in air.

The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum has published Special Volume 54 entitled "The Geology, Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Mineral Beneficiation of Platinum-Group Elements", edited by Louis J. Cabri. Professor Dennis Buchanan of Imperial College, London, reviews this book. It contains papers on the main PGE deposits in Kola Peninsula in Russia are also covered. Of the 26 review papers one deals with analytical methods, five with phase geochemistry and three with mineral processing and extractive metallurgy.

The issue also contains a selection of abstracts of the most recently published literature and patents and ends with ‘Final Analysis’ in which Tony Wilkins describes why sulfur levels in gasoline and diesel fuel are being lowered.

Platinum Metals Review is available on the internet from the publications section of the Platinum Today site or from the host site Ingenta Select.

Susan V. Ashton
Editor

Anyone with an active interest in the platinum group metals and their uses who does not have ready access to a copy of Platinum Metals Review and who may benefit from reading it, is invited to request a specimen copy from:

The Editor, Johnson Matthey PLC, Orchard Road, Royston, Hertfordshire SG8 5HE, United Kingdom; Fax +44 (0) 1763 256359; Email jmpmr@matthey.com