Platinum Black? (Was: Re: [rescue] SCRAPPLE)

[Paul Sladen]

On Wed, 14 Nov 2001, John Duksta wrote:
> At 03:01 PM 11/13/2001 -0800, James Lockwood wrote:
> >
> >The sad thing is, now you can't even buy platinum black from a chem
> 
> What illicit substance is platinum black used in?

I've no idea, but a little Googling:  ("platinum black" chemist):

  Platinum in a very fine state of division known as platinum black, or
  /noir de platinehas/ has the very singular property of causing alcohol to
  change into acetic acid with great rapidity

An first I thought it would do something magic to alchol to turn your
average pint into something stronger....

  Absent an obvious ignition source, merely venting hydrogen gas into an
  oxygen-containing environment is not very dangerous. Unless, of course,
  one has some powdered *platinum black* (PtO) in the path of the gas which
  catalyzes the fairly efficient combustion of hydrogen in oxygen, producing
  water, heat, light, and sound, without any other ignition source.

so, given the previous talk about car `optimisation', and that the following
on paragraph from the above describes it as:...

  "needlessly inflammatory"

um, helpful -- sounds quite fun...

  The platinum electrode is made of a small square of platinum foil which is
  platinized (known as platinum black). 

Seemlying a definition a definate of what it might look like if I ever
found any...

  Physical properties
     Colour: black or violet-black 
  Synthesis
     Probably not made pure.
  Suppliers
     Coming soon....

oh right, as a) it's synthetic, and b) nobody is willing to supply it :-)
Though it had some `pretty' pictures...  :-)

  http://www.webelements.com/webelements/compounds/text/Pt/O1Pt1-12035824.html

well... IE on this machines I'm using for console today just crashed,  and
I'm still non-the-wiser;  but at a guess, I'd say `it goes *bang*'.

	-Paul