This paper reviews the use and relation of the word ‘ptène’ to osmium. While Smithson Tennant discovered osmium in platinum ore in 1804, the French chemists Antoine-François Fourcroy and Nicolas-Louis Vauquelin simultaneously identified in a platinum residue a metal they called ‘ptène’. This name was most probably attributed to a mixture of platinoids (excluding platinum), mainly osmium and iridium. Nevertheless, Fourcroy later considered that ‘ptène’ was the name they attributed to osmium.

The post Osmium vs. ‘Ptène’: The Naming of the Densest Metal appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

The remarkable benefits associated with the attraction of polyethylene glycol (PEG)-containing nanomicelles to metal nanoparticles in water allows for varying types of important catalysis to be done under very mild and green conditions.

The post The ‘Nano-to-Nano’ Effect Applied to Organic Synthesis in Water appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Revision is ongoing for ISO 22000 on food safety management systems, which has just reached the Draft International Standard (DIS) stage. The revised standard will incorporate a new core structure as well…

Global methanol production in 2016 was around 85 million metric tonnes (1), enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every twelve minutes. And if all the global production capacity were in full use, it would only take eight minutes. The vast majority of the produced methanol undergoes at least one further chemical transformation, more likely two or three before being turned into a final product. Methanol is one of the first building blocks in a wide variety of synthetic materials that make up many modern products and is also used as a fuel and a fuel additive. This paper looks at the last 100 years or so of the industrial history of methanol production.

The post Methanol Production – A Technical History appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

In the century since the first platinum gauze for nitric acid production was made by Johnson Matthey, the demand for nitric acid has increased considerably with its vast number of applications: from fertiliser production to mining explosives and gold extraction. Throughout the significant changes in the industry over the past 100 years, there has been continual development in Johnson Matthey’s gauze technology to meet the changing needs of customers: improving efficiency, increasing campaign length, reducing metal losses and reducing harmful nitrous oxide emissions. This article reviews the progress in gauze development over the past century and looks at recent developments.

The post One Hundred Years of Gauze Innovation appeared first on Johnson Matthey Technology Review.

Where would we be without nature? It is our life force, our source of survival. This year’s World Environment Day is focused on “connecting people to nature”, inviting us to think about how we are a part…