12

The D iscoverv and Early Historyj j j

of Catalysis“ / have tried to produce these phenom ena with various metals hut I have succeeded only with platinum and palladium. ”

H U M P H R Y D A V Y

The point had now been reached when the more important physical properties of platinum and some of its associated metals had become reasonably well understood and had formed the basis of several applications. O ne major property, and one that was later to make a most significant contribution to chemical industry, was, however, yet to be discovered.

As is so often the case, this discovery came incidentally from a quite different investigation. A disastrous explosion in a coal mine in the N orth of England in 1812, shortly followed by a num ber of similar explosions, prom pted an appeal for advice to H um phry Davy at the Royal Institution and resulted in his well- known researches on flame and his invention of the m iner’s safety lamp. In a paper read to the Royal Society on Jan u ary 23rd 1817 Davy described his experiments on the increase in the limits of combustibility of mixtures of coal gas and air with increasing temperature:

“For this purpose, I introduced a small wire-gauze safe-lamp with some fine wire of platinum fixed above the flame, into a combustible mixture containing the maximum of coal gas, and when the inflammation had taken place in the wire-gauze cylinder, I threw in more coal gas, expecting that the heat acquired by the mixed gas in passing through the wire-gauze would prevent the excess from extinguishing the flame. The flame continued for two or three seconds after the coal gas was introduced; and when it was extinguished, that part of the wire of platinum which had been hottest remained ignited, and continued so for many minutes.

It was immediately obvious that this was the result which I had hoped to attain by other methods, and that the oxygen and coal gas in contact with the wire combined without flame, and yet produced heat enough to preserve the wire ignited, and to keep up their own combustion. I proved the truth of this conclusion by making a similar mixture, heating a fine wire of platinum and introducing it into the mixture. It immediately became ignited nearly to whiteness, as if it had been itself in actual com­bustion, and continued glowing for a long while, and when it was extinguished, the inflammability of the mixture was found entirely destroyed.

219

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

T h e o pen ing page of the m a n u sc r ip t of Sir H u m p h ry Davy 's p a p e r read to the Koval Society on J a n u a ry 2 3 rd . 1817. “ Some new ex p e r im en ts and o bserva t io n s on the com b in a t ion o f gaseous m ix tu res , with an account of a m etho d fo r keeping a co n t in u ed light in m ix tu res of in f lam m ab le gases and air w ithout f lam e". T h e p a p e r goes on: **I had in tend ed to expose fine p la t in um wires to oxygen an d o lefiant gas and to oxygen an d hyd ro gen d u r in g th e i r slow c o m b in a t ion u n d e r d i f fe re n t c i rcum stan ces . when I was accidental ly led to the discovery of a new a n d cu r ious series of p h e n o m e n a . * * D a v y h a d d i s c o v e r e d h e t e r o g e n e o u s c a t a l y t i c o x i d a t i o n b u t u n f o r t u n a t e l y he d id not ap p re c ia te the signif icance of his fi n< lings

By rou rt es* of t he Koval Inst i tution

I have tried to produce th ese phenom ena with various m etals; but I have succeeded only with platinum an d palladium ; with copper, silver, iron, gold and zinc, the effect is not produced. ” (1)Thus Davy discovered the phenomenon of heterogeneous catalytic oxidation

and although he obtained the sam e results with ether and alcohol, obtaining an acidic product that Faraday a n d later Daniell identified as a mixture of ace- taldehyde and acetic acid, he did not carry further the study of this profoundly important effect. His mind was fully occupied with problems of combustion, he was by now fully satisfied with the safety-lamp and he tended to regard the phenomenon he had discovered, as he wrote to one of his colliery manager friends, as “ more like magic th a n anything I have seen . . . it depends upon a perfectly new principle in combustion” (2 ).

T he Researches o f E dm und D avyDespite this Davy’s paper aroused great interest; it was translated into German and French and it also encouraged his cousin Edm und Davy to take up the matter. Edmund, seven years younger than Humphry, had been engaged as the

220

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

Edmund Davy 1785-1857

A younger cousin of H u m p h ry Davy. E d m u n d first assisted the la t te r at the Royal Inst i tu tion and then held the ch a ir of chemistrv at the Royal Cork Inst itu tion. H ere he p re p a re d finely d iv ided p la t inum an d found tha t it would oxidise alcohol v ap ou r at room te m p e ra tu re , suff ic ient heat being gen era ted to ra ise the m etal to a white heat. Again . E d m u n d Davy fa iled to grasp the signif icance of his discovery , but it led im mediate ly to the m uch m o r e e f f e c t i v e r e s e a r c h e s o f D obere iner

From a po r tr a it in the possession of ihe K o \a l Dubli n Society

latter’s assistant in 1804 and then in 1831 had secured an appointment as Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Cork Institution. While still at the Royal Institution in London he had made several studies in the chemistry of platinum and published long papers in The Philosophical M agazine (3). In 1817 he carried these researches further and presented a paper to the Royal Society on a new fulminating compound of platinum (4). He stood much in the shadow of Humphry, and when in 1820 he published a paper describing the preparation of finely divided platinum by reducing a solution of platinum sulphate with alcohol and its great activity at room temperature in the oxidation of a further quantity of alcohol, he merely wrote:

“ In this case the acid first noticed by Sir H. Davy (in his beautiful experim ent of the ignited platinum wire, and since more fully exam ined by Mr. D aniell) is produced . . . This m ode of igniting a m etal seem s to be quite a new fact in the history of chemistry, but the m eans of keeping it in a state of ignition is only another illustration of the facts previously pointed out by Sir H. Davy, in his late valuable researches.” (5)

Johann W olfgang D obereinerEdmund Davy’s paper was reproduced in Germ an in Schweigger’s Journal fiir Chemie in the spring of the following year and attracted the attention of Johann

221

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

W olfgang D öbere iner who was to open up a m u ch m ore vigorous study of the p h en o m en o n an d to cause quite a sensa tion am ong his scientific contem poraries. D öbereiner , b o rn the son of a c o a c h m a n in 1780, first served a n apprenticesh ip to an apothecary an d then s p e n t five years as an ap o th e c a ry ’s ass is tan t in K a r ls ru h e an d S trasburg , a t te n d in g lectures on chem istry an d m ineralogy in his free time. O p en in g his ow n p h a rm a ceu t ica l m an u fac tu r in g business, he b eg a n to con tr ibu te papers to G e h le n ’s Neues Allgemeine Journal für Chemie bu t his business failed an d he was left im poverished .

In 1810, to his great surprise, D ö b e re in e r was ap po in ted to the Professorship of C hem is try in the University of J e n a , th e ch a ir c rea ted by C ar l August, D uke of S axe-W eim ar-E isenach in 1789 and now left vacant by the d ea th of its first holder, J o h a n n Göttling. T h e ap p o in tm en t was m ad e by the Duke, an enlightened p a tro n of the arts a n d sciences, toge ther w ith his M in is te r of S ta te G o e th e on the recom m endation o f G ehlen, an d D ö b e re in er rem a ined for the rest of his life m ost grateful for this o p p o r tu n i ty , refusing several offers of chairs in o th e r universities. A n ex tra o rd in a ry fr iendship grew betw een D öbereiner , the G ra n d D uke (as he becam e in 1815) and G oethe , bo th in terested in chemistry.

By the A ugust of 1821 he had n o t only rep ea ted E d m u n d D a v y ’s experim ents b u t h a d fully apprec ia ted their significance, rightly regard ing the im p o rtan t discovery as the activity of the p la t in u m ra th e r than , as h ad b o th the Davys, as the ac tion up o n it of the alcohol. H e believed a t the t im e th a t E d m u n d D a v y ’s p ro d u c t was a sub-oxide of p la t in u m and he wrote:

“ The platinum sub-oxide moreover, does not undergo any change during this transformation of the alcohol and can immediately be used again to acidify fresh, perhaps limitless, quantities of alcohol . . . a circumstance that permits its use for the large scale preparation of acetic acid. ” (7)

In J u ly 1823 he tu rn ed his a t ten t io n to the m eta l itself, an d p rep a red p la t in u m in pow der form by h e a t in g am m o n iu m chloropla tinate . T h is he found w ou ld ignite a m ix ture of h y d ro g e n a n d e ither a ir o r oxygen even at room tem p era tu re or below:

“ There now followed in a few moments that strange reaction; the volume of the gases diminished and after ten minutes all the oxygen in the admitted air had con­densed with the hydrogen to water. ” (8)

H e also gave some thought to the m ost su itab le form to ad o p t for the p la t in u m pow der an d m ad e use o f small m o u ld ed pellets of p o t te r ’s clay im preg­n a ted with p la t in u m - the first ex a m p le of a su p p o r ted catalyst.

D öbereiner was quick to m a k e his findings known. T w o days after this experim ent - which he repea ted “ a t least th ir ty times th a t day an d always with th e sam e re su lt” — he wrote to G o e th e :

“ Permit me, your Excellency, to give you news of a discovery that seems to be important in the highest degree from the points of view of both physics and electrochemistry.” (9)

H e also w rote similarly to L o re n z O ken , the ed itor of a scientific jo u rn a l Isis,

222

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

D ö b e re in e r b e g a n his c a r e e r as P ro fe s s o r of C h e m is t ry in room s in th e p a l a c e of h is p a t ro n . D u k e C a rl A ugus t o f S a x e - W e im a r -E i s e n a c h . b u t th e s e soon p ro v e d i n a d e q u a t e an d in 1816 a la rge h o u se w as a c q u i r e d , sh o w n on th e r ight o f this i l lu s t r a t io n , fo r use as both a l a b o ra to ry a n d a hom e . L a te r , in 1833. a new l a b o r a to ry , v is ib le b e h in d th e t r e e s , was buil t for h im to p lan s d r a w n up by th e D u k e 's M in is te r o f S ta te , G o e th e

published in Jen a , and sent detailed accounts to his f r ie n d j . S. C. Schw eigger in Bayreuth and to L. W. G ilbert in Leipzig w ho both pub lish ed his letters in their respective jo u rn a ls (10), while he quickly p ro duced a small book, “ U b e r neu E ntdeckte höchst M erkw ürd ige E igenschaften des P la t in s ,” pub lish ed in Jena , also in 1823.

O n A ugust 3rd D öbere iner m ad e an even m ore striking experim ent by merely directing a s tream of hydrogen a t the p la t in u m p o w d e r so th a t it was mixed with air before reaching its target. T h e p la t in u m im m edia te ly becam e white hot and ignited the hydrogen. This , reported a t once to the editors already mentioned, an d pub lished by them as appendices to his first an n o u n cem en t (10), caused even m ore excitement. A n u n n am ed friend in Paris w rote to D öbereiner to say th a t his news h a d aroused “ a great sensa tion here and excited the liveliest in te rest” , while his pa tron , the G ra n d D u k e C arl A ugust wrote to him:

“ I am delighted that your splendid discovery excites the attention of foreign countries. I return to you the letter from Paris and thank you for the published paper.” (11)

At the second an n u a l meeting, held in H a lle in Sep tem ber, of the Gesellschaft deu tscher N a tu rfo rsche r und Ärtze, D öbere iner p resen ted a paper and, to the surprise an d delight of the m em bers, gave a practical dem onstra tion . Among his m ore significant com m ents was:

“Most likely a new natural principle is operative here that will become apparent through further investigation” (12).

223

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

All incidental result of D o b e r e i n e r ’s d iscoveries was his in v en tion of the first lighter. Phis em ployed h y d ro g e n , g en e ra te d from zinc a n d s u lp h u r ic ac id , passing over finely d iv ided p la t in u m which then glowed suffic iently to ignite the gas. \ n u m b e r of d i f f e r e n t types p ro d u c e d in G erm an y an d in Kngland becam e very p o p u la r an d m a n y th o u san d s of th em w ere in use o ve r a long period of time. D obere ine r r e fu s e d to file a p a te n t for his l ighter with the co m m ent ” I love science m o re th a n money**. T h e se a r e bu t th re e of the many designs that w ere p roduced

By cour tesy o f the Sc ie nce M useum

The reaction in France was also swift. O n Sunday August 24th a brief notice of Dobereiner’s work was published in a daily newspaper, th e Journal des Debats, including the comment that

“ T his beautiful discovery is g o in g to open up a new field of research in physics and chemistry. ” (13)This also quickly attracted attention, while Professor Karl Kastner of the

University of Erlangen wrote to his former student Liebig, then studying under Gay-Lussac in Paris, to give an account of Dobereiner’s work. Liebig immediately passed on the news to the Académie des Sciences through Louis Jacques Thenard, Professor of Chemistry at the École Polytechnique, who had earlier been interesting himself in reactions such as the decomposition of

224

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

Louis Ja c q u e s T h é n a rd 1 7 7 7 —1 8 5 7

B orn in the vil lage of La L o u p t ie r e , now k n ow n in his h o n o u r a s La L o u p t i e r e - T h e n a rd . n e a r \ o g e n t - s u r - S cine . T h e n a r d c a m e to P a r i s at the age o f s e v e n te e n d u r in g th e Re ign of T e r r o r to s tudy p h a r m a c y . H is k e e n n e s s b ro u g h t h im to th e no t ice of Y a u q u e l in a n d F o u rc ro y . bo th of whom a d v a n c e d his c a r e e r . In 1804 he re p la c e d .V au q u e l in in th e c h a i r of ch em is try a t th e College d e F ra n c e while in 1810 he w as a p p o in t e d P ro fe s so r at th e École P o ly t e c h n iq u e a n d su c ceed ed F o u rc ro y in th e A c a d é m ie des Sciences . I m m e d ia te ly th e news of D o b e r e in e r ' s d iscovery re a c h e d P a r i s he a n d his co l league Dulong began to inves tiga te the e f fec ts of p la t i n u m , p a l l a d iu m , rh o d iu m a n d o th e r m eta ls o n th e c o m b u s t io n of h y d ro g en a n d oxygen

B \ co u rte sy o f th e W e llc o m e I n s t i tu te

o f th e H isto ry o f M e d ic in e

am m onia over hea ted metals. T h e n a r d w as m ost excited by this developm ent and, together with his younger co llabo ra to r P ierre Louis D ulong , he im mediately began a n investigation into the new p h en o m en o n by s tudy ing the effects of hea ted solid metals on inflam m able m ix tures of gases. T h e y obta ined samples of pa l lad ium an d rh o d iu m from W ollaston, a n d they d em o n s tra ted that platinum, pallad ium , rhodium , cobalt, nickel, gold an d silver requ ired increas­ingly high tem pera tu res , in th a t order, to bring ab o u t the co m b in a t io n of hydrogen a n d oxygen. As p ro m p tly as S ep tem b er 15th they read a first repo rt to the A cadém ie an d th rough the influence of their friend G ay-L ussac , the editor, this was squeezed into the S ep tem b er issue (in small type) of th e Annales de Chimie (14) before D ô b e re in e r’s p a p e r h ad ap p ea red in F ren c h tran s la t io n in the sam e journal.

Shortly afterw ards T h e n a rd an d D ulong p ro duced pal lad ium , rh o d iu m and iridium in pow der form an d found th a t they were effective at room tem pera tu re , this result being reported to the A cadém ie only a week after their original p ap e r was read (15).

D uring the w in ter of 1823 fur ther research was ca rr ied ou t by A dolf Pleischl the Professor of C hem is try in the University of Prague, w ho was anxious to discover why it was th a t the experim ents som etim es failed. H e conc luded quite rightly tha t the im p o rtan t factors were the degree of fineness a n d th e porosity of

225

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

A dolph M artin P leischl1787-1867

A n a t iv e of B o h e m ia an d P ro fe s so r of C h e m is t ry at th e U n ivers i ty o f P ra g u e f ro m 1815 un t i l 1833 w hen he moved to V ie n n a , P le isehl qu ick ly fo llow ed up D o b c r e i n e r s w ork an d in N o v e m b e r 1823 he e s ta b l is h e d that th e ac tiv i ty of th e p l a t in u m p o w d e r d e p e n d e d u p o n its fineness. H e fo u n d th a t p la t in u m p o w d e r tha t h a d p rev iously been e f fe c ­t ive fa i led if p ressed h a rd to g e th e r , w hi le a n especia l ly fine p o w d e r w orked ex t r e m e ly well at a lower t e m p e r a t u r e t h a n usual

By co u rte sy o f th e ^ e llc o m e I n s titu te

o f th e H isto ry o f M e d ic in e

his p la tinum powder, a f in d in g th a t d rew an apprecia tive le tter from Dobereiner, published as an ap p e n d ix to the paper. A few weeks later he established th a t pa l lad ium also behaves in a s im ilar way to p la t in u m bu t with lower activity, a n d he ad d ed th a t unfo r tuna te ly he h a d no iridium, rh o d iu m or osm ium available to him a l th o u g h he felt th a t they m ight well exhibit the sam e p roperty (17).

In his well known annua l re p o r ts on the progress of chem is try Berzelius gave the highest pra ise of which he was ca p ab le to D obere iner for th e yea r 1823:

“ From any point of view the most important and, if I may use the expression, the most brilliant discovery of last year is, without doubt, that fine platinum powder has the ability to unite oxygen and hydrogen even at low temperatures.” (18)

O n e by-product of D o b e re in e r ’s work was th e invention of the lighter th a t still bears his name, the D o b e re in e r Feuerzeug. In this hydrogen, genera ted from zinc and sulphuric acid, p a s se d th ro u g h a nozzle over a small am o u n t of finely divided p la t inum held on th in p la t in u m wires an d b ecam e ignited, the flame then being passed to a cand le . M a n y th o u san d s of these lighters were p ro duced in G e rm an y and in E n g la n d b u t D obere iner refused to accept any financial rew ard for his invention.

226

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

For a m ore detailed account of D ô b e re in e r ’s life a n d work a m o s t valuable source is to be found in a n u n p u b lish ed thesis by Dr. P e te r C ollins and in a shorter version of this pub lished in 1976 (19) u p o n which the p resen t w rite r has d raw n heavily an d gratefully in the foregoing section.

Further Investigations in Great BritainO n the day following the read ing of D ulong an d T h e n a r d ’s first p a p e r to the

A cadém ie des Sciences the F ren c h physicist J . N. P. H a c h e t te (1769-1834) wrote one of his m an y letters to M ichae l F a ra d a y (20). T h e concluding p a rag rap h reads in transla tion :

“ I saw demonstrated yesterday the beautiful experiment of Dobereiner, a German scientist (of Stuttgart, I think). You are no doubt familiar with it. It consists in direct­ing a current of hydrogen on to platinum powder obtained from the solution of this metal in aqua regia by precipitation with the ammonium salt. The hydrogen gas inflames, by simple contact. In your hands this fact will not be the last of its kind” .

F a rad ay w as of course highly in terested in this piece of news, an d by S ep tem ­ber 27th he h ad p rep a red p la t in u m in po w d er form by hea ting a m m o n iu m chloropla tinate an d h a d repea ted D ô b e re in e r’s experim ent to his en tire satisfac­tion (21). H e at once wrote a short note for the O c to b e r issue of th e Quarterly Journal of Science, edited from the R oyal In s t i tu tion by Professor W ill iam Brande, D avy’s successor. In this he wrote:

C o n c e rn e d a t the lack of d e ta i l in D o b c r e in e r ' s a c c o u n t of his e x p e r im e n t on th e c o m ­b ina t io n of oxygen a n d h y d ro g e n . W il l ia m H e r a p a t h . a n a n a ly t i c a l ch em is t w h o la te r b e cam e P ro fe s s o r o f C h e m is t ry a n d Toxico logy a t the Bristo l School o f M e d ic in e , r e p e a te d th e e x p e r im e n t s in O c to b e r 1823. u s ing th e a p p a r a t u s sh o w n h e r e , a n d r e a d a p a p e r to th e n e w lv - fo rm e d Bristol P h i lo s o p h ic a l Socie ty of I n q u i r e r s very soon a f t e r th e p u b l ic a t io n o f F a r a d a y ' s b r i e f no te . H y d r o g e n a n d oxygen w e re su p p l ie d f ro m th e two b la d d e r s a n d passed ov e r th e spongy p l a t i n u m in th e vessel P he ld in a c a p s u le

227

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

“ A most extraordinary experiment has been made by M. Dobereiner. It was com­municated to me by M. Hachette; and having verified it I think every chemist will be glad to hear its nature” (22).

L ater in the sam e year F a r a d a y p re p a re d a review of the work so far carried out, “ O n the Action of P la t in a on M ix tu res of O xygen , H y d ro g e n and o ther G a se s” (23). In this, after descr ib ing D o b e re in e r ’s experim ents , he reviewed D ulong an d T h e n a r d ’s papers m o s t favourably a n d w ent on to m en tion a p ap e r by W illiam H e ra p a th of Bristol w ho h ad repea ted D o b e re in e r ’s experim ents in O c to b e r 1823 and confirmed t h a t the p la t in u m un d erw en t no chemical change a n d that o ther metals did not give the sam e effect (24), an d to one A lexander G arden , a chemist of O xford S tree t , L ondon , w ho h ad shown th a t the black residue left w hen crude p la t in u m is dissolved in aq u a regia was also active in the sam e way (25). However, F a r a d a y tu rn ed to o th e r m atte rs an d did not re tu rn to this subject for a further ten years , as will a p p e a r la ter in this chapter .

In 1825 H u m p h ry Davy m a d e his only reference to the p h en o m en o n since his original discovery, an d in a r a th e r obscure place. In 1818 he h a d pub lished a book “ O n the Safety L am p . . . w i th Som e R esearches o n F la m e ” , b u t in 1825 he was moved to publish a second ed i t io n because his experience, as he w rote in the preface

“ having shewn that the precautions which it was intended to describe either are not known or are not attended to, I have thought it might assist the cause of humanity to advertise the book a second time” (26).

T h is edition contained several append ices , an d in A ppend ix No. 2 he re tu rn ed to the subject and to the later work o f D obere iner w ith finely divided p la t in u m such as E d m u n d Davy h ad used, an d o f D ulong an d T h e n a rd , w ho h ad show n th a t

“ various metals in a finely divided state have the same property of hastening or producing combinations at a lower temperature than those at which they usually occur”.

D avy continued:“ It is probable that the rationale of all these processes is of the same kind.

Whenever any chemical operation is produced by an increase of temperature, whatever occasions an accumulation of heat, must tend to give greater facility to the process; a very thick wire of platinum does not act upon a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, at a heat below redness; but if beat into thin laminae, it occasions its com­bustion at the heat of boiling mercury, and, when in the form of the thinnest foil, at usual temperatures. I cooled the spongy platinum to 3° of Fahr., and still it inflamed hydrogen nearly of the same temperature, issuing from a tube cooled by salt and ice.

It may be supposed that the spongy platinum absorbs hydrogen, or that it con­tains oxygen; but neither of these hypotheses will apply to the fact that I first observed, of the ignition of fine wires in different mixtures of inflammable gases and air, at temperatures so far below ignition.”

Im m ediate ly after the p u b l ic a t io n of this second ed it ion Davy becam e ill and exhausted, an d after four years of w a n d e r in g in E u ro p e he d ied in G eneva a t the early age of 50 on M ay 29, 1829.

228

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

In the meantime William Henry (1775-1836), the Manchester chemist and manufacturer, had carried out an investigation on the use of Dobereiner’s reac­tion in the analyses of gases, using the la tter’s pellets of china clay and platinum sponge (27) while Edward T urner (1796-1857), later to become the first professor of chemistry at University College, London, but then an extra-mural lecturer in Edinburgh, read a paper to the Royal Society of that city on the applications of Dobereiner’s discovery to eudiometry (28). Again he made use of small pellets of pipe-clay mixed with spongy platinum, dried and then fired in a spirit lamp. He found that the action of platinum “ affords a neat and expeditious method of ascertaining the purity of hydrogen or oxygen” , but could not agree with Henry that platinum could be helpful in gas analysis.

The Contact Process for Sulphuric AcidAs early as 1831 the industrial possibilities offered by heterogeneous catalytic oxidation were grasped by a young m an engaged, with his father and the la tter’s partner, in the manufacture of vinegar in Bristol, an enterprise started in 1824

P H IL L IP S ' S P E C IF IC A T IO N .

TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRE8ENT8 SH ALL COME, I , P e ik ok ineP h il lips , Junior, of Bristol, Vinegar Maker, sen d greeting.

W HEREAS H is present most Excellent Majesty K in g W illiam the Fourth, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of (ireat Britain, bearing date

5 at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of March, in the first year of His reign, did, for Himself, H is heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Perigrine Phillips, His especial licence, sole privilege and authority, that 1, the said Peregrine Phillips, my exors, adniors, and assigns, or such others aa 1, the said Peregrine Phillips, my exors, admors, or assigns, should

10 at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term o f yeare therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within Eugland, Wales, and the Town o f Berwick- upon-Tweed, my Invention o f “ C u ta i i Ixrzovxaxvrs ur M am in cm » « Sultxttxic Acu coxhovlt CALI.TO 0 u or Virxioi; ” in which said Letters Patent

15 is contained a proviso that I, the said Peregrine Phillips, shall cause a parti­cular description of the nature o f my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in H is said Majesty’s H igh Conrt oi Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date o f the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,

20 reference being thereon to had, w ill more fully and at large appear.NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said

Peregrine Phillips, junior, do hereby declare that the nature o f my said im­provements are herein set forth and explained; but for the better understanding

T h e p a ten t specif ication filed by th e m y s t e r i o u s P e r e g r i n e Phill ips in 1831 for the m an u fa c tu re of su lp h u r ic acid by passing s u lp h u r dioxide and air th rough a p la t in um tube co n ­tain ing finely d iv ided p la t inum . Apart from the fact tha t he was the son of a v inegar m an u fa c tu re r in Bristol nothing is known of him or of how he acq uired his knowledge of chemistry. A year a f te r the pa ten t was g ran ted the vinegar business closed an d P ereg rine Phill ips, a l though still a young m an . was never h ea rd of again

229

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

an d trad ing as Phillips, T h o r n e and Co. F a th e r an d son were bo th nam ed Peregrine Phillips, an d the y o u n g e r one w ithd rew from the p ar tn e rsh ip in 1831. U nfortunate ly nothing is k n o w n abou t this young m a n despite a m eticulous research carried out in the local records in 1926 by S ir E rnes t Cook, a d ist­inguished chem ist who becam e L o rd M a y o r of Bristol, except th a t his fa ther had been a tailor from 1803 until th e es tab lishm en t of the v inegar firm an d th a t only a year after the son ’s w ith d raw al the business was ab a n d o n ed an d the premises sold at auction. (29)

N one the less Peregrine j u n io r m ust have acq u ired a n a d e q u a te knowledge of chemistry to becom e one of th e relatively few m en to devise an entirely new chemical process, in his case the m an u fac tu re of su lphuric acid. H is p a ten t No. 6096 covers “ C e r ta in Im p ro v em en ts in M an u fac tu r in g S u lp h u r ic Acid co m ­monly called O il of Vitriol. ” T h e specification states:

“ The first improvement then, namely, the instantaneous union of sulphurous acid with the oxygen of the atmosphere, I effect by drawing them in proper proportions by the action of an air pump or other mechanical means thro’ an ignited tube or tubes of platina, porcelain, or any other material not acted on when heated by the sulphurous acid gas. In the said tube or tubes I place fine platina wire or platina in any finely- divided state, and I heat them to a strong yellow heat, and by preference in the chamber of a reverberatory furnace; and I do affirm that sulphurous acid gas being made to pass with a sufficient supply of atmospheric air through tubes as described, properly heated and managed, will be instantly converted into sulphuric acid gas, which will be rapidly absorbed as soon as it comes into contact with water.”

In the following year P rofessor G ustav M a g n u s of the U niversity of Berlin pub lished a brief review of P h i l l ip s ’ p roposed process, confirm ing his findings bu t draw ing a tten t ion to the fact th a t the p la t in u m po w d er was effective only at high tem pera tu res (30). I t was, however, to be an o th e r seventy years before the process was adop ted in industry after som e fu r the r research into the conditions requ ired for com m ercial success; details of this a re set ou t in C h a p te r 21.

Faraday’s Return to the SubjectT e n years after his review of th e w ork of D obere iner a n d T h en a rd , F a ra d ay had occasion to take up again the cu r io u s p h en o m en o n he h ad th en discussed. In the m idd le of his classic researches on electrochem istry , believing th a t he had established the constan t chem ica l ac tion of a given q u an t i ty of electricity and busily constructing his new vo ltam eter, he was mystified by the pecu lia r reaction of the p la tinum electrodes on th e gases p ro d u c ed in electrolysis:

“ I was occasionally surprised at observing a deficiency of the gases resulting from the decomposition of water and a t last an actual disappearance of portions which had been evolved, collected and measured.”

His im m edia te reaction w a s th a t this arose from a com pletely new p h enom enon th a t required th o ro u g h investigation, a n d in the long p ap e r he read to the Royal Society i n j a n u a r y 1834 (31) he wrote:

230

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

“ These experiments reduced the phenomenon to the consequence of a power possessed by the platina, after it had been the positive pole of a voltaic pile, of causing the combination of oxygen and hydrogen at common, or even at low, temperatures. This effect is, as far as I am aware, altogether new.”

H e went on to em phasise th a t this p roperty of inducing co m b in a t io n was the sam e as tha t discovered by D ôbere iner “ to belong in so em inen t a degree to spongy p la t in a ” , an d th en tu rn ed to the d iscussion of a theory advanced some years earlier by a physic ian in Florence, A m brog io Fusinieri (1773-1853). In his p ap e r (32) Fusinieri con tended th a t during the reactions first observed by H u m p h ry Davy “ concrete lam in ae” of the com bustib le substance could be seen on the p la t in u m surface, these th en d isappearing by burn ing . H e proposed the concept of “ native ca lor ic” (calorico nativo) as an explanation .

F a rad ay h ad learnt I ta l ian du ring his E u ro p e an to u r w ith Sir H u m p h ry and Lady Davy in the years 1813 to 1815, bu t he was puzzled by the r a th e r archaic language in which Fusin ie r i’s p ap e r was w ri t ten an d confessed tha t he could not form “ a distinct idea of the pow er to w hich he refers the p h e n o m e n a ” . (F a ra d a y ’s difficulties in this connection have been discussed m ore recently by Professor A. J . B. R o b ertso n and two of his colleagues (33)).

T h e theory then advanced by F a ra d a y involved the s im ultaneous adso rp tion of bo th reac tan ts on the p la t in u m surface, the only essential cond ition being a perfectly clean a n d metallic surface:

“The effect is evidently produced by most, if not all bodies, weakly perhaps by many of them, but rising to a high degree in platina . . . The platina is not considered as causing the combination of any particles with itself, but only associating them closely around it. ”A lthough a cen tury a n d a half la ter this p h en o m en o n rem ains som eth ing of a

mystery to chemists, F a ra d ay was indeed close to the t ru th of the m atter .

The Enterprise o f Frédéric K u h lm an nIm p o rtan t investigations into the p ro d u c tio n of bo th nitric a n d su lphuric acids by passing the ap p ro p r ia te gases over hea ted p la t in u m w ere ca rr ied out in F rance by a n energetic a n d en terpris ing chemist an d m anufac tu re r , F rédéric K u h lm an n (1803-1881). C om bin ing the Professorship of Indus tr ia l C h em is try at the University of Lille w ith industr ia l projects after s tudying u n d er V auquelin , he h ad studied the work of H u m p h ry a n d E d m u n d Davy, D ôbere iner and T h en a rd . H e was also greatly in terested in the p a r t p layed by n itrogen p roduc ts in agriculture, and in fact in later years carried out investigations on the use of am m onium salts as fertilisers on his ow n estate.

W ith this as his background, K u h lm a n n went to work vigorously on the nitric acid problem, an d found th a t by passing a m ix tu re of am m o n ia and air over p la t in u m sponge hea ted to ab o u t 300°C in a glass tu b e he o b ta in ed nitric acid. H e filed a pa ten t applica tion for this invention in D ecem ber 1838. (34)

At this time sa ltpetre was readily an d cheaply available, an d the new process

231

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

could not offer any com m ercia l ad v an tage , b u t in the course of a p ap e r given to the A cadém ie in the sam e year, K u h lm a n n m ad e these p rophe tic rem arks:

“ If in fact the transformation of ammonia to nitric acid in the presence of platinum and air is not economical, the time may come when this process will con­stitute a profitable industry, and it may be said with assurance that the facts pre­sented here should serve to allay completely any fears felt by the government on the difficulty of obtaining saltpetre in sufficient quantities in the event of war.” (35)

O n the sam e day as his p a te n t for am m o n ia oxidation was g ran ted K u h lm a n n secured a second p a te n t for the m an u fac tu re of su lphuric acid by the oxidation of su lphur dioxide over finely divided p la t in u m su p p o r ted on glass or o ther m aterial not a ttacked b y the acid (36). H e w as p ro b ab ly aw are of Peregrine Phillips’ p a ten t of 1831, filed only in E ng land , bu t unlike Phillips he was able to p u t his idea into p rac t ice in the chem ical firm th a t he founded, Etab lissem ents K u h lm a n n at Loos, a l though it was aga in very m an y years before it becam e a full scale co m m erc ia l process.

Berzelius Coins the T erm CatalysisIt m ay have been noticed tha t th ro u g h o u t this chap te r , o the r th a n in its heading, the w ord “ cata lysis” has hard ly b ee n used. It w as not in fact ever em ployed by those whose researches have b e e n described, b u t was coined by J . J . Berzelius only in 1836. In his annua l re p o r t to the Sw edish A cadem y of Sciences for the previous year he reviewed som e o f the results of these workers a n d realising tha t there m ust be a com m on cause fo r this effect, he coined a n am e for it, writing:

“ This is a new power to produce chemical activity belonging to both inorganic and organic nature, which is surely more widespread than we have hitherto believed and the nature of which is still concealed from us. When I call it a new power, I do not mean to imply that it is a capacity independent of the electrochemical properties of the substance. O n the contrary, I am unable to suppose that this is anything other than a kind of special manifestation of these, but as long as we are unable to discover their mutual relationship, it will simplify our researches to regard it as a separate power for the time being. It will also make it easier for us to refer to it if it possesses a name of its own. I shall therefore, using a derivation well-known in chemistry, call it the catalytic pow er of the substances, and decomposition by means of this power catalysis, just as we use the word analysis to denote the separation of the component parts of bodies by means of ordinary chemical forces. Catalytic power actually means that substances are able to awaken affinities which are asleep at this temperature by their mere presence and not by their own affinity” (37).

T h u s we owe to Berzelius, to his percep tion a n d his gift for enriching chem istry with ap p ro p r ia te term inology , a te rm th a t has com e to signify a p h en o m en o n of vital an d fa r-reach ing im p o rtan ce in m o d ern chem ical industry a n d one associated p re -em inen tly with the p la t in u m metals.

232

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

123456

8

9

10

11

1213141516171819

20212223242526

27282930313233343536

H. Davy, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1817, 107, 77—85Letter from Davy to John Buddie, British Museum Add. MSS 33963 f 114E. Davy, Phil. Mag., 1812, 40, 209-220; 263-278; 350-365E. Davy, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1817, 107, 136-157E. Davy, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1820, 110, 108—125E. Davy, J .fiir Chem. (Schweigger), 1821, 31, 340-356J. W. Dobereiner, Ann. Phys. ( Gilbert), 1822, 72, 193-198J. W. Dobereiner, J .fiir Chem. (Schweigger), 1823, 38, 321-326J. Schiff, Briefwechsel zwischen Goethe und Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner, Weimar, 1914, letter 94, July 29, 1823J .fiir Chem. (Schweigger), 1823, 38, 321-326; Ann. Phys. (Gilbert), 1823, 74, 269—273 O. Schade, Briefe des Grosherzogs Carl August und Goethe an Dobereiner, Weimar, 1856, letter 21, August 9, 1823 J. W. Dobereiner, J .fur Chem. (Schweigger), 1823, 39, 3-4 J . des Debats, 1823, August 24, 4P. L. Dulong and L. J. Thenard, Ann. Chim., 1823, 23, 440-443 P. L. Dulong and L. J. Thenard, Ann. Chim., 1823, 24, 380-387 A. Pleischl, J .fiir Chem. (Schweigger), 1823, 39, 142—159 A. Pleischl, J . fur Chem. (Schweigger), 1823, 39, 201-205; 351-356 J. J. Berzelius, Jahres-Bericht, 1825, 4, 60-61P. Collins, The Development of Heterogeneous Catalysis, 1817-1823, Thesis sub­mitted injune 1974, University of Oxford: Ambix, 1976, 23 ,96 -115 Letter from J. N. P. Hachette to Faraday, September 16, 1823, I.E.E. Archives M. Faraday, Royal Institution Laboratory Notebook No. 8, 81 M. Faraday, Quart. J . Science, 1823, 16, 179 M. Faraday, Quart. J . Science, 1823, 16, 375—377 W. Herapath, Phil. M ag, 1823, 62. 286-289 A. Garden, Ann. Phil., 1823, 22, 466—467H. Davy, On the Safety Lamp for Preventing Explosives in Mines, Houses Lighted by Gas, Spirit Warehouses, or Magazines in Ships etc., with Some Researches on Flame, 1825, Appendix 2, pp 148-151 W. Henry, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1824, 114, 266-289E. Turner, Edin. Phil. J ., 1824, 11, 99-113; 311-318 Sir Ernest Cook, Nature, 1926, 117,419-421H. G. Magnus, Ann. Phys., ( Poggendorff), 1832, 24, 610-612 M. Faraday, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., 1834, 124, 55-122 A. Fusinieri, Giornah di Fisica, 1824, 7, 371-376M. Farinelli, A. L. B. Gale and A. J. B. Robertson, Ann.Sci., 1974,31. 19-20F. Kuhlmann, French Patent 11331F. Kuhlmann, Compte Rendus, 1838, 7, 1107—1110 F. Kuhlmann, French Patent 11332J.J. Berzelius, Jahres-Bericht, 1836, 15. 243; Ann. Chim., 1836, 6 1, 146—151

References for Chapter 12

233

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey

Peter G r igo r iev ich Sobolevsky 1781-1841

T h e son of a surgeon . Sobolevsky served in the army until 1804 when he took up an a d m in i s t r a t i v e an d technica l ca re e r . In 1826 he was ap p o in ted D i re c to r of the large new chem ica l labora to ry just e rec ted for the M in in g C ad e t C orps in St. P e te r s b u rg and here he devised a successfu l p rocess fo r th e ex trac t ion and refining of R ussian p la t in u m . His bus t in th e lib rary of the Mining Inst i tu te c o m m em o ra te s th is a c h iev em en t

“A History of Platinum and its Allied Metals”, by Donald McDonald and Leslie B. Hunt

© 1982 Johnson Matthey