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Wednesday, 9th February 2005 (4326 views)

Gold has made its debut as a catalyst five years after the launch of intense research and development into greater industrial uses.<br/><br/>World Gold Council consulting chemist and advisor on university-industry research collaboration Dr David Thompson told Mining Weekly Online that gold, together with palladium, was already being used as a catalyst in the production of vinyl acetate monomer (VAM).<br/><br/>Speaking after a presentation on the progress of research and development of new industrial uses for gold staged by Project AuTEK, Dr Thompson explained that the gold-palladium presence improves the reaction time of VAM, an ingredient in paint, wood glue and paper paste, that is used by British Petroleum in the UK.<br/><br/>Traditionally, some 80 per cent of the 4 000 tonnes of gold produced a year has been used to manufacture gold jewellery, with 200 tonnes a year going into electronics and 70 tonnes in dental medicine, but in ten years experts predict that industrial use could match the 200 tonne a year used in electronics, to account for five per cent of the market.<br/><br/>Dr Thompson said he expected new widespread use of gold catalysis to clean air in buildings and restaurants. Small fans would direct air over the gold catalyst, ridding the air of dangerous carbon monoxide, tobacco smoke and other impurities. The gold scientist added that the industrial use of gold in the manufacture of food and in chemical processing in general was also likely to increase.<br/><br/>According to Project AuTEK, gold will also be used in fuel cells to clean the petrol used, with 10 t of tiny nanometre particles used in new respirators from 2007. Protect AuTEK is a joint initiative by AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold and Mintek and it has invested some R30-million in research and development in the past five years.<br/><br/>"If one considers what took place in the US on September 11th, the new respirators have the potential to open a whole new field of safety," Dr Van der Lingen explained.<br/><br/>Dr Van der Lingen claimed that gold had suffered from being cast in the role of a jewellery metal and not enough had been spent on gold research and development. She said yet it had enormous potential as an ambient-temperature catalyst and pointed out that gold composites took on fibre form rather than spherical form, significantly enlarging surface areas and allowing biosensor analysis, for instance, of single droplets of blood.<img src="http://directnews.dehavilland.co.uk/dn.gif?feedid=196&itemid=7765011"/>

 

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