Jones Beene <jone...@pacbell.net> wrote:
> By inadvertent catalyst, the implication is that a "hidden" element is > found > in nickel, going back to the natural ore - at a low percentage which would > not be mentioned. This addition is often called a "dopant" when it is added > knowingly. The person who buys this alloy as a catalyst, may not appreciate > why it is active, but may know that it comes only from one supplier - or > from one mining location - so he always purchases from that source. > It could be something like that. McKubre often points out that the Pd sample that worked best was the most impure one, from Engelhard. It must have been something in the metal other than Pd that made it work so well. I guess it might have been the morphology, but it seems more likely it was the trace elements. > Monel alloy 400 today is an alloy of the > same proportions of nickel and copper as is found naturally in the nickel > ore from the Sudbury Ontario mine and was once only available from there. Yup. Nowadays the mass spectrometers are so sensitive, they can find traces of this or that no matter how small, so the metallurgists can recreate the natural product. - Jed
