At 04:34 PM 22/7/96 +0200, you wrote:
>Dear subscribers,
>Where can I find background information on platinum as a catalyst for the
>oxygen-CO2 conversion. Most of the new papers dealing with fluorination
>of oxides and subsequent O2-CO2 conversion refer to this step but without
>details. Are there any other catalysts to promote the high-temperature
>formation of CO2 (res. to avoid the CO-formation)?
>best wishes
>Bernd
>
Bernd,

We use platinum wire with a carbon rod for CO2 conversions without any trouble.
There is no need to condition the carbon rod with platinic chloride.
I have attached a wordperfect 6.1 file which contains a drawing (rough) of
our setup. The carbon rod is 3cm long, 2mm wide with carbon caps at each
end which are embedded with platinum wire which is then attached using
stainless rods to your electrodes. A variac is used to control temperature.
There should be enough current for the platinum wire to glow white and the
carbon rod should be red - orange in the centre for conversion to take
place. An initial 10 minute outgassing of the rod is required. Plus the
first conversion is usually slow. After breaking in, all conversions should
take between 4 and 6 minutes. For cooling purposes, the setup is encased in
a water jacket. The main trouble is poor contacts otherwise the system
works well.

Hope this is some help.

Kim Baublys
Stable Isotope Laboratory
University of Queensland
Australia