Platinum is an expensive material and an excellent accelerator for many chemical reactions. Therefore, it is considered an indispensable assistant when you need to quickly get a large amount of product.
And Nature Chemistry says platinum is expensive because it is known as a rare metal. Its properties are also clearly visible in its liquid state. But melting this metal is not an easy process, as it melts at 1700 degrees Celsius.
However, chemists discovered that the cheap metal gallium remains liquid even at room temperature, because its melting temperature is 30 degrees Celsius, meaning it “melts” by hand.
“It’s a liquid metal, so we can consider it as a solvent,” said scientist Arivor Rahim of the University of New South Wales.
After heating gallium and platinum to 300 degrees Celsius for two hours, Australian chemists obtained “liquid platinum” that remains liquid even at room temperature. When platinum is in liquid form, it becomes an effective catalyst (accelerator of chemical reactions).
What is interesting is that it is enough to obtain a small amount of platinum (liquid platinum), and in this case its effectiveness is more than 1000 times higher than in the solid state.
Dr. said. Arifur Rahim, UNSW Sydney.
Platinum jars (orange) and gallium atoms (gray)
The modeling results showed that platinum atoms allow the surrounding gallium atoms to also act as catalysts.
Dr Andrew Kristofferson, a researcher at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said: “Under the influence of platinum, a magical transformation of gallium takes place. But without platinum it wouldn’t happen. To the best of my knowledge, this is a completely new catalyst, no one has discovered similar. ”
And “liquid platinum” has become not only more effective, but also more practical than its solid counterparts. Because liquid catalysts are easy to “refresh” (clean them of accumulated impurities if necessary). That means it works longer.
According to scientists, “liquid platinum” can be used to “capture” carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, make ammonia for fertilizers, prepare medicine, drugs and more.
Source: Vesti. Ro
Source: Arabic RT
