The United States of America As Represented by the Administrator of the

Patricia A Davis

Billy T Upchurch

Irvin M Miller

A quantity of reagent grade tin metal or compound, chloride-free, and high-surface-area silica spheres are placed in deionized water, followed by deaerating the mixture by boiling and adding an oxidizing agent, such as nitric acid. The nitric acid oxidizes the tin to metastannic acid which coats the spheres because the acid is adsorbed on the substrate. The metastannic acid becomes tin-oxide upon drying and calcining. The tin-oxide coated silica spheres are then placed in water and boiled. A chloride-free precious metal compound in aqueous solution is than added to the mixture containing the spheres, and the precious metal compound is reduced to a precious metal by use of a suitable reducing agent such as formic acid. Very beneficial results have been obtained using the precious metal compound tetraammine platinum(II) hydroxide.

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Newport News, VA, United States of America

Patricia A Davis