Platinum research students scoop two awards

For two Stellenbosch University students doing postgraduate research on the chemistry of platinum metals, the International Year of Chemistry, which is being celebrated in 2011, got off to a great start.

Hugo van Wyk and James Odendal

Hugo van Wyk and James Odendal, who are both members of the Platinum Metals Research Group of the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science, received two of the five poster prizes awarded to students at the 40^th South Africa Chemistry Institute Convention (SACI2011) and the 3d Federation of African Chemical Societies (FACS) meeting.

The combined meeting offered chemists in South Africa and their colleagues on the African continent the opportunity to meet together to discuss topics such as green chemistry, inorganic chemistry, education in chemistry and environmental and materials chemistry.

The winning entrees by James and Hugo were selected by a panel of local and international judges and students attending the weeklong event at the University of the Witwatersrand.

MSc student Hugo van Wyk’s thermodynamic and chemical speciation study of platinum complexes in acidic solutions as relevant to the large-scale refining of platinum in South African industry was one of the four best posters at the bigger SACI meeting.  The study by Mr van Wyk is novel and allows for establishing optimum conditions for the most efficient means of separating and refining platinum in process solutions.

Doctoral student James Odendal’s poster, which describes an exploration of the novel use of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) as a means  to measure platinum to chloride bond lengths in platinum complexes in the solid state, received the prize for the best poster of the Inorganic 2011 meeting. Inorganic 2011 formed part of the overall SACI conference programme.

“It is pleasing to see that the research efforts and training of our postgraduate students are recognized in this way,” said Prof Klaus Koch, leader of the Platinum Group Metals Chemistry Research Group and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science.