Full Text for January 2008, Volume 52, Number 1

 

This issue contains the following:

Antitumour Activity of Platinum and Ruthenium Complexes
Metal coordination compounds with ‘slow’ metal-ligand exchange rates, comparable to those of cell division processes, are often highly active in killing cancer cell lines. This is particularly marked in platinum and ruthenium complexes. Professor Jan Reedijk (Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden, The Netherlands) discusses the current knowledge of the molecular mechanism of antitumour activity. He reviews classical examples such as cisplatin, as well as more recent examples. Mechanistic studies on both platinum and ruthenium compounds have opened new avenues of research that may lead to the design of completely new drugs.

 

Fuel Cell Commercialisation
The Tenth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium and exhibition took place at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, on the 25th to 27th September 2007. Don Cameron (The Interact Consultancy, Reading, U.K.) reviews the event, which showed that fuel cells are becoming commercially viable in many niche markets. These include military applications and standby power supplies, but fuel cells are also gradually being accepted for other applications. Platinum catalysts are likely to continue to dominate the low temperature fuel cell market, due to their superior performance.

 

PGM Complexes for Medicinal Applications
Professor Peter Sadler (Department of Chemistry, University of Warwick, U.K.) reviews the book “Medicinal Applications of Coordination Chemistry”, by Chris Jones and John Thornback. Two significant areas of inorganic chemistry in recent years are the platinum anticancer field and diagnostic imaging using gadolinium compounds. The book’s coverage of other precious metals includes ruthenium (currently two complexes in clinical anticancer trials), palladium (currently the subject of research), rhodium (anticancer potential) and gold (for rheumatoid arthritis).

 

Diesel Engine Emissions Control
Tim Johnson (Corning Environmental Technologies, Corning Incorporated, U.S.A.) discusses recent developments in regulations to limit diesel emissions, covering engine technology and remediation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter. The EU will implement the Euro V and Euro VI regulations for light-duty engines in 2009 and 2014, respectively, and European vehicles can be adapted for the U.S. market. NOx control focuses on selective catalytic reduction (SCR). Lean NOx traps (LNTs) are being considered for light-duty applications, and there is growing interest in supplementing LNT with integrated SCR. Diesel particulate filter technology is at a stage of optimisation and cost reduction.

 

Palladium Catalysis for Improved Efficiency
A step change in efficiency in synthetic procedures for the manufacture of complex drug molecules has been achieved in recent years, by switching from a linear pattern of steps (often more than ten) to the parallel synthesis of key precursors, then linking them at a late stage in the process. Advances in coupling chemistry such as Heck, Suzuki-Miyaura and Stille reactions have made this possible, and many of them rely on palladium catalysis. Chris Barnard (Johnson Matthey Technology Centre, Sonning Common, U.K.) reviews some of the early work on palladium-catalysed C–C bond formation, and how the methodologies have changed with recent developments.

 
 
PGMs in Metallopolymer-Based Materials
The book “Frontiers in Transition Metal-Containing Polymers”, edited by Alaa S. Abd-El-Aziz and Ian Manners, surveys transition metallopolymer-based functional materials. Kaushik Mallick (Advanced Materials Division, Mintek, South Africa) presents a review of the book. Twelve chapters address different categories of transition metal-containing polymers, dendrimers and biopolymer systems with regard to their preparation, potential applications and future prospects. The pgms feature prominently in many of these areas.

 

Platinum-Based Superalloys (Part III)
This is the final paper in a series reporting on a collaborative project to build up a platinum-aluminium-chromium-ruthenium (Pt-Al-Cr-Ru) database, for the prediction of phase diagrams for alloy development. Part III, by J. Preußner¹, S. N. Prins^2,3, M. Wenderoth⁴, R. Völkl¹ and U. Glatzel¹ (¹Metals and Alloys, Universität Bayreuth, Germany; ²National Metrology Institute of South Africa;³Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A.; ⁴Siemens AG, Germany), deals with progress towards a platinum-aluminium-chromium-nickel (Pt-Al-Cr-Ni) database at the University of Bayreuth, using thermodynamic calculations from first principles to deal with the problem of sparse data. The Pt-Al-Cr-Ru and Pt-Al-Cr-Ni databases will eventually be merged to give a Pt-Al-Cr-Ni-Ru database.

 

Practical Platinum Jewellery Smithing
Christopher Corti (COReGOLD Technology Consultancy, Reading, U.K.) reviews “Adventures at the Bench”, by Jurgen Maerz of Platinum Guild International USA. It is the latest in a series of practical jewellery handbooks published by MJSA Press. Aimed at the practising bench jeweller, the book is a compilation of a number of practical articles published in the MJSA Journal, with some additional material. Sponsored by Johnson Matthey NY, it is a tool for any bench jeweller working with platinum.

 

PGM Market Update
“Platinum 2007 Interim Review”, Johnson Matthey’s latest market survey of pgms supply and demand, was published in November 2007. It provides detailed forecasts of pgm supply and demand for the calendar year, plus short-term market outlook.

 

Analysing Catalyst Particle Size
Particle size analysis on catalysts is the most direct way to predict the effective surface area available for catalytic activity. Dogan Ozkaya (Johnson Matthey Technology Centre, Sonning Common, U.K.) discusses the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to provide size analysis from individual platinum particles on carbon supports, giving localised size information from the areas of sample where the images are obtained. The analysis is based on ‘thresholding’ the intensities from each pixel of an image, and exploiting the differences in intensity between particles and the background.

 

Abstracts and New Patents
A selection of abstracts from the scientific and patent literature is presented. New subject headings have been introduced to these sections, to better reflect the diversity of areas in which the pgms are being applied.

Barry W. Copping
Editor

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

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