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July 2008

Supported Palladium-Zinc Catalyst for Methanol Steam Reforming

Cross section of prototype methanol steam microreformer with Pd-Zn/oxide support washcoated in the microchannels. The microreformer supplies a miniature fuel cell power source (Courtesy of Motorola Energy Technologies Lab).

Mixed PGM Oxides Feature in Water Disinfection

Electrochemical disinfection device with four pipe reactors equipped with mixed iridium/ruthenium oxide-coated titanium electrodes, installed in a cooling water system (Courtesy of G.E.R.U.S. mbH).



"The Catalyst Technical Handbook"

Johnson Matthey has published an updated edition of "The Catalyst Technical Handbook". It contains data on heterogeneous and homogeneous pgm catalysts and their reactions, chiral catalysis and non-leachable polymer-linked catalysts. Also included is information on sponge metals and PRICAT support base metal catalysts. The handbook is available in electronic or print formats. For a free copy please contact Connie Schlegel.


Alfa Aesar 2008–2009 Catalog of Research Chemicals, Metals and Materials

Request your copy by completing the Literature Request Form.

The catalog offers nearly 30,000 products available from stock. Over 3000 new products include novel fine organics, nanomaterials, fuel cell catalysts and components, pure metals, alloys, analytical standards and catalyst/ligand kits. There is a new 14-page introduction to the Precious Metal Compounds and Catalysts section, by catalyst expert Martyn Twigg. It briefly covers the history of precious metal catalysis, and there are sections on general catalytic requirements for selected applications.


PGM Catalyst Kits

Johnson Matthey produce three catalyst kits of research amounts of catalyst, aimed at small scale working in academia and industry. Joanne Frankham (U.K. and Europe) and Connie Schlegel (U.S.A. and Asia) will provide information.


Asymmetric Hydrogenation Ligand/Catalyst Kit

A 12-piece kit of 8 ligands (500 mg each) and 4 catalysts (100 mg each) to make catalysts.


Advanced Coupling Kit

A 9-piece kit (1000 mg each) for C-C coupling reactions, aminations, alpha ketone arylation, etc., using sterically hindered substrates, aryl chlorides and electron-rich substrates. A guide is included.


Heterogeneous Catalyst Screening Kit

Contains 40 samples.


Research Chemicals

Small to medium quantities of precious metal salts and solutions are available for early stage R&D from Alfa Aesar: Europe and U.S.A. Packs are sized from grams up to semi-bulk quantities.

Further details from Alfa Aesar, free phone 00800 4566 4566 in Europe. In the U.S.A. go to Alfa Aesar, free phone 800 343 0660.

Editorial Board

The Members of the PMR Editorial Board

The detailed list

Professor R. Grant Cawthorn

Professor R. Grant Cawthorn

School of Geosciences

University of the Witwatersrand
PO Wits, 2050
South Africa
E-mail: cawthorng@geosciences.wits.ac.za
Website: www.wits.ac.za/geosciences/Staff/Academic_Overview_files/Cawthorn/Cawthorn.htm

R. Grant Cawthorn is the Platinum Industry’s Professor of Igneous Petrology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. His main research interests are the genesis of the Bushveld Complex and its chromite, platinum and vanadiferous magnetite deposits, and the Insizwa intrusion and its copper and nickel deposits. His main fields of specialisation are the origin of mafic igneous intrusive rocks and their mineral deposits.

He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Durham and a Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh.

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Dr Thomas J. Colacot

Dr Thomas J. Colacot

Johnson Matthey Inc.

2001 Nolte Drive
West Deptford
New Jersey 08066-1727
U.S.A.
E-mail: colactj@jmusa.com
Website: www.crab.rutgers.edu/~maslen/tjc/TJCdetails.htm

Thomas Colacot is a Development Manager in the Catalysis and Chiral Technologies Division at Johnson Matthey, West Deptford, U.S.A. He has global R&D responsibilites with some business development for India. Technically he is involved in the development of new organometallic compounds for catalysis and electronic applications, process development, supported homogeneous catalysts and high throughput screening of catalysts for organic reactions, such as C-C couplings and C-heteroatom couplings. He has worked in the area of highly air and moisture sensitive organophosphines, arsines and stibines. Dr Colacot was the Chair for the ACS South Jersey chapter. He is a visiting faculty member of Rutgers University in the Graduate School of Chemistry, where he teaches an applied organometallic chemistry course relevant to the fine chemicals and pharmaceutical industries.

Dr Colacot obtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1989 in the area of ligands and P, S, N heterocyclic chemistry. From 1990–1993 he taught at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Florida A & M University. From 1993–1995 he held a senior research associate position with Professor Hosmane in the areas of metallocenes and metallacarboranes for Ziegler Natta catalysis (ATP/AMOCO project). He holds an MBA from Penn State University. He has published in the region of 45 papers in the field of organic/organometallic chemistry. Dr Colacot also gives technical presentations.

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Professor Robert H. Crabtree

Professor Robert H. Crabtree

Yale University

Chemical Department
225 Prospect St
POB 208197
New Haven, CT 06520
U.S.A.
E-mail: robert.crabtree@yale.edu
Website: ursula.chem.yale.edu/~crabtree/

Bob Crabtree is Professor of Inorganic Chemistry; Organic Chemistry at Yale University, U.S.A. Professor Crabtree has worked in: asymmetric synthesis using Ir hydrogenation catalysts, alkane CH activation, the development of dihydrogen complexes, CF activation systems, N-heterocyclic carbenes and has researched into activity in bioinorganic chemistry. He is currently involved in designing and synthesising new homogeneous catalysts, especially chelating carbenes and their metal complexes. He is the winner of the Johnson Matthey Rhodium Bicentenary Competition.

Professor Crabtree holds a B.A. from the University of Oxford and a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex.

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Professor Paul J. Dyson

Professor Paul J. Dyson

Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Institut des sciences et ingénierie chimiques
BCH- LCOM
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
E-mail: Paul.Dyson@epfl.ch
Website: isic2.epfl.ch/page59045.html

Paul Dyson is a Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Laboratory of Organometallic and Medicinal Chemistry at the Institut de Chimie Minérale et Analytique EPFL–BCH, Lausanne, Switzerland. He is interested in synthetic chemistry, especially in the synthesis of molecular catalysts that operate under biphasic conditions. Analytical chemistry, theoretical chemistry and mechanistic studies underpin his work. The main areas he is currently involved in are biphasic catalysis in water and ionic liquids; the design of ruthenium anticancer compounds; and transition metal clusters for novel synthesis and catalysis.

Professor Dyson received his Ph.D. in 1993 (Prof. B. F. G. Johnson) at the University of Edinburgh, with a thesis on the synthesis of ruthenium clusters that modelled bulk metal surfaces. After post-doctoral work in this group he joined Imperial College, London, and, influenced by the strong tradition in catalysis at Imperial, moved his research interests in that direction. In 1995 he obtained a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. In 1998 he moved to the University of York. He joined the EPFL in 2002.

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Dr Simon P Fricker

Dr Simon P. Fricker

AnorMED Inc.

#200 – 20353 64th Avenue
Langley, BC
Y2Y 1N5
Canada
E-mail: simonfricker@shaw.ca

Simon Fricker is Director of Biology for AnorMED Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based in Langley, British Columbia. AnorMED focuses on the discovery and development of new therapeutic products for the treatment of a variety of diseases, including, cancer, HIV and inflammation. Simon Fricker is one of the seven founder members of AnorMED.

Prior to joining AnorMED Dr Fricker was a Principal Scientist with the biomedical technology group of Johnson Matthey (1983–1996). Before Johnson Matthey Dr Fricker carried out postdoctoral research at the MRC Biochemical Parasitology Unit, Molteno Institute, University of Cambridge, and the Department of Biochemistry, University of Southampton. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, University of Warwick, U.K., in 1981, where he conducted graduate work on the effect of cytotoxic anticancer drugs on the DNA metabolism and proliferation of lymphoblasts. He received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of Southampton (1976) and an M.Sc. in Molecular Enzymology from the University of Warwick (1978).

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Dr Holger Friedrich

Dr Holger Friedrich

University of KwaZulu-Natal

Howard College
Durban 4041
South Africa
E-mail: friedric@ukzn.ac.za
Website: www.ukzn.ac.za/department/members/members.asp?dept=chemwebund&id=3107

Holger Friedrich is a senior lecturer in the School of Chemistry at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Howard College). He is interested in the preparation and properties of transition metal-containing materials and especially their application to oxidation catalysis. Major focus areas are the oxidation of higher linear alkanes (C6 and greater) to valuable products over heterogeneous catalysts and the catalytic oxidation of alkenes. As osmium and ruthenium can be viewed as “South African metals”, their oxidation chemistry is being studied, with osmium finding application in catalysts for the dihydroxylation of olefins, whilst ruthenium-based catalysts can be very effective in the oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds. Most of the catalytic materials currently being studied are mixed metal oxides or synthetic hydrotalcite-like compounds. Dr Friedrich also has an interest in heteronuclear organometallic compounds, investigating metalloselectivity and possible intermetallic communication. Organometallic derivatives of paraffins and carbenium ions are also being studied.

Dr Friedrich holds a B.Sc (Hons) and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town.

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Dr Can Li

Professor Can Li

Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics

Chinese Academy of Sciences
State Key Laboratory of Catalysis
457 Zhongshan Road
Dalian 116023
PR China
E-mail: canli@dicp.ac.cn
Website: www.canli.dicp.ac.cn

Can Li is a Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the State Key Laboratory of Catalysis at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. Since 2000 he has been the Director of the Joint Laboratory of France-China on Catalysis (LFCC). His main research activities include UV Raman spectroscopic techniques to investigate catalytic issues. His research areas are based on the investigation of new catalytic reactions, new catalytic materials and catalyst characterisation techniques, with emphasis on in situ characterisation under dynamic conditions of catalytically active phases, active sites and reaction mechanisms. From an understanding of the fundamental principles of catalysis he applies them to the design and development of new catalysts. Other work includes the conversion of light alkanes, catalytic synthesis of fine chemicals, energy conversion and environmental catalysis.

Professor Li has a B.Sc. from Zhangye Normal Institute/Shanxi Normal University; and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. in physical/catalysis chemistry from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (Professors Xiexian Guo and Takaharu Onishi).

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Dr Barry A. Murrer

Johnson Matthey Technology Centre

Blounts Court
Sonning Common
Reading RG4 9NH
U.K.
E-mail: jmpmr@matthey.com

Barry Murrer became the Director of the Johnson Matthey Technology Centre in Sonning Common in April 2000. He has been with Johnson Matthey since he left university in 1979. Dr Murrer began his career working on homogeneous catalysis. He has worked on a large variety of new applications in the pgms. Dr Murrer worked for several years on anticancer platinum drugs, of which he has extensive knowledge. His current interests are any catalytic use of platinum group metals and their chemistry; this extends into the preparation and properties of any pgms materials.

Dr Murrer is the author of many papers, reviews and patents.

Barry Murrer holds a B.A. and D.Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

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Dr Lucy Otley

Dr Lucy C. Otley

E-mail: Lucy Otley

Lucy Otley provides portable power sources for electronics equipment in the government communications sector, specialising in lithium battery technology.

Lucy previously worked at the Johnson Matthey Technology Centre as a materials scientist. She worked in areas including: physical preparation of nanoparticulate materials; dye-sensitised photovoltaics; gold catalysis for methanol and hydrogen fuel cells; and a selection of platinum group metallurgy and electrometallurgy projects.

Lucy was educated at Cambridge University, graduating in Natural Sciences (Physical) in 1997 and receiving her Ph.D. in 2002. Her Ph.D. on electroluminescence and electrochemical surface treatment of aluminium was sponsored by Alcan International and supervised by Professor G. T. Burstein.

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Dr Peter Panfilov

Dr Peter Panfilov

Laboratory of Strength

Urals University
620083 Ekaterinburg
Russia
E-mail: peter.panfilov@usu.ru
Website: www2.usu.ru/physics/conden_state

Peter Panfilov is a Senior Scientist in the Institute of Physics and Applied Mathematics at the Urals State University in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Since 1986, his scientific interests have been closely connected with the problem of plastic deformation and fracture of refractory platinum group metals and their composites, including deformation mechanisms, fracture nodes and processing. The academic aspects of his research aim to understand the physical nature of crack growth in single crystals and polycrystalline aggregates. He is a coauthor of the book "Metallurgy and Mechanical Properties of Iridium" – and a co-editor of the book of Proceedings of the International Symposium on Iridium.

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Professor Valentin N. Parmon

Professor Valentin N. Parmon

Boreskov Institute of Catalysis

Prospekt Ak. Lavrentieva 5
630090 Novosibirsk
Russia
E-mail: parmon@catalysis.ru
Website: www.catalysis.ru

Valentin Parmon is the Director of the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis (Novosibirsk, Russia) and holds the Chair of Physical Chemistry (Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia). His main fields of interest are in chemical kinetics and catalysis, photochemistry and radiation chemistry. He is also involved in chemical radiospectroscopy and the physical chemistry of energy production, renewable energy and the transfer of new technologies to industry. His current interests are in catalysis, energy conversion and thermodynamics.

Professor Parmon is the Chairman of the Russian Scientific Council on Catalysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He is the Russian representative in the European Federation of Catalytic Societies (EFCATS) and the Editor-in-Chief of the journals: Chemistry in Russia (the Russian Chemical Society), Catalysis in Industry (Russia) and Catalysis Bulletin (Russia). He is the Russian Regional Editor of the journal Reaction Kinetics and Catalysis Letters (Elsevier), a Member of the Editorial Boards of: the Russian Chemical Journal (Russia), Chemistry for Sustainable Development (SB RAS), Catalysis Today (Elsevier), Catalysis Letters (Kluwer), Topics in Catalysis (Kluwer), Cattech (Kluwer), Catalysis Reviews: Science & Engineering (Elsevier), Reaction Intermediates (Japan), Chemistry & Technology of Water (Ukraine) and Material Research Innovations.

Professor Parmon was educated at Moscow Physical and Technical Institute.

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Dr Martyn V. Twigg

Dr Martyn V. Twigg

Johnson Matthey

Orchard Road
Royston SG8 5HE
U.K.
E-mail: twiggm@matthey.com

Martyn Twigg is the Chief Scientist of Johnson Matthey. Martyn moved from his position as European Technology Director for the Environmental Catalysts and Technologies Division of Johnson Matthey, Royston.

Martyn held a junior faculty position at the University of Toronto where he worked on the kinetics and mechanisms of reactions of metal carbonyl compounds. Following this he had a fellowship at the University of Cambridge working on the synthesis and reactivity of hydrocarbon organometallic compounds and the photochemistry of metal-metal bonded metal carbonyls. He then joined ICI where, for almost twenty years, he aided the development and production of heterogeneous catalysts used in large-scale single-stream plants that produce products such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, ammonia, methanol and formaldehyde. Proprietary catalysts and processes were also developed for speciality organic products and pollution control systems. Before joining Johnson Matthey he managed a joint American/European project concerned with novel polymers and processes involving vinyl chloride.

Martyn has authored or co-authored many research papers, written numerous chapters in encyclopaedic works, and edited and contributed to several books. He edits a series of fundamental and applied catalysis books, and a series on the kinetics and mechanisms of inorganic and organometallic reactions. He is on the editorial board of several journals, and maintains active associations with universities in the U.K. and elsewhere, with honorary positions at some.

Martyn Twigg has a B.Sc. (Special Hons) in chemistry and physics from the University of Hull, and a Ph.D. in mechanistic inorganic chemistry of porphyry models from the University of Kent.

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Dr Michael P. Walsh

3105 North Dinwiddie Street
Arlington, VA 22207
U.S.A.
E-mail: mpwalsh@igc.org
Website: www.walshcarlines.com

Mike Walsh has extensive knowledge of the automotive industry and automotive catalysis. Over the past 35 years, he has participated in many stages of the development of the automotive catalyst industry, as a researcher, a government regulator and most recently as an international consultant. He maintains a broad overview of global developments regarding motor vehicle pollution control. Dr Walsh was selected as the first recipient of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Lifetime Individual Achievement Award for “outstanding achievement, demonstrated leadership, and a lasting commitment to promoting clean air”.

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Professor Masahiro Watanabe

Professor Masahiro Watanabe

Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Conversion

Faculty of Engineering
Yamanashi University
4-3-11 Takeda
Kofu 400-8511
Japan
E-mail: m-watanabe@yamanashi.ac.jp
Website: www.clean.yamanashi.ac.jp

Yamanashi University Fuel Cell Research Team: www.ab11.yamanashi.ac.jp/~mwatanab/

Masahiro Watanabe is a Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the Clean Energy Research Center at Yamanashi University.

The primary specialties and research topics of Professor Watanabe are in electrochemistry and catalysis, for instance, electrocatalyst design, fuel-reforming catalysts and materials for various types of fuel cells. Professor Watanabe is currently the Chairman of the Division of Electrochemical Energy Conversion, International Society of Electrochemistry; the Editor (from 2000 to the present) of Fuel Cells, From Fundamentals to Systems, a Council Member (since its foundation in 1981) and (since 2001) the General Manager of the Fuel Cell Division, Electrochemical Society of Japan, and a Member of the Committee on Hydrogen Energy Systems Technology of NEDO. Since 1999 he has been a Member of the Committee on Strategies for Implementation of Fuel Cells, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

In 1992 The Electrochemical Society of Japan awarded Professor Watanabe the Science Award for Design of High Performance Electrocatalysts and Electrode Structures for Fuel Cells.

In 2001 he received the Yamanashi Academy of Sciences Award: Fundamentals and Practical Research on Fuel Cells.

Professor Watanabe holds an M.A. from Yamanashi University and a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tokyo.

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Professor Michael J. Witcomb

Professor Michael J. Witcomb

University of the Witwatersrand

Private Bag 3
WITS 2050
South Africa
E-mail: michael.witcomb@wits.ac.za
Website: eb.wits.ac.za/Academic/Research/EMU/

Michael Witcomb is Professor and Director of the Electron Microscope Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa and a member of the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials. His current research using SEM, TEM, EDS, EELS involves the microstructural characterisation of polymer-metal nanoparticle composites, catalysts and hard metals, phase diagram studies of aluminium intermetallics for high temperature purposes, and carbide precipitation processes in platinum and palladium in collaboration with the National Center for Electron Microscopy at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

He holds a B.Sc. from the University of Hull and an M.Sc. and Ph.D. from the University of Lancaster.

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Mrs Yongli Zhang

Mrs Yongli Zhang

Kunming Institute of Precious Metals

Kunming
Yunnan 650221
PR China
E-mail: zyl@ipm.com.cn

Mrs Yongli Zhang is a Research Professor in Kunming Institute of Precious Metals, Kunming, China. Her main research fields are precious metals materials, especially composites and thin films. She is currently the Co-editor in Chief of the Chinese scientific and technical journal “Precious Metals”.

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