This book would address an area that has received increasing attention in recent years. The need to find catalysts that do not rely on precious metals is driven by several reasons. First and most obvious is that precious metals are very expensive, sometimes costing more than 100 times the cost of base metals. This alone is not the only reason; in some cases specialized organic ligands cost more than the metal. Substantial costs are involved in industrial processes when recovery and recycle of the metal is required. Another attribute of avoiding precious metals is that some metals like iron have a minimal environmental and toxicological impact. Importantly, some large-scale uses in energy storage and conversion that might be considered would require large amounts of precious metals, and this would not be feasible owing to the lack of availability, aside from the prohibitive cost (for example, a ‘hydrogen economy’ based on fuel cells that require platinum would not be feasible because there is not enough platinum in the world for this to be feasible).
- ISBN: 978-3-527-32354-8
- Editorial: Wiley-VCH
- Encuadernacion: Cartoné
- Páginas: 320
- Fecha Publicación: 22/09/2010
- Nº Volúmenes: 1
- Idioma: Inglés