Would it be worth your while prowling the scrapyard in search of catalytic converters in order to extract the palladium and platinum catalysts? Swims heard stories about people finding all sorts of useful and valuable car parts in the scrapyards.

Would it be worth your while prowling the scrapyard in search of catalytic converters in order to extract the palladium and platinum catalysts? Swims heard stories about people finding all sorts of useful and valuable car parts in the scrapyards.

Yes and no. You see the problem is that the catalyst found at the scrapyard are probably old and so i would presume that most of them are "poisoned" as in are unusable to us :(

In UK scrapyards, anybody intelligent who operates one will remove it and sell either separately or back to a company - its worth about the most out of any scrap car he or she will receive.

I was actually thinking about this, only around here people dump cars in the middle of nowhere :mad: It's a beautiful island so they decide to go and leave their car in some bush in the mountains or something. Pricks. Anyway, would it be worthwhile to cut off the cat converter? No one around here takes them off, and there are a few cars dumped around where I live. If I took the cats, would it be better to take them apart and keep the shiny metal (can you clean it easily?) or just sell the whole thing?

This would be so easy, no one cares about these cars, and as long as I don't leave scraps of metal lying around on the ground no one would care at all. How much do they go for? I'm off to ebay and google for more info, but anything you guys can give me would be great. (I'm hungry... feed me please! :D)

Edit: I found 1oz palladium bars for $400-500.
Edit 2: Catalytic converters for $200 each http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23117250

Go for it diamondx! I have a pictorial on cleaning this stuff somewhere, if your interested i can dig it up :)

Go for it diamondx! I have a pictorial on cleaning this stuff somewhere, if your interested i can dig it up :)

Very! Once I get over this flu and get some time off work I'll go cat shopping. :D

Very! Once I get over this flu and get some time off work I'll go cat shopping. :D

Your going to have to give me some time because i can't seem to find it on SM, so i will have to go through my back ups :(

Interesting article DiamondX. I had no idea they contained Rhodium too. Thieves gathering $2000-$3000 worth of catalytic converters in less than 30 minutes. Maybe I'm in the wrong business.

Here, in the wrong areas, the crackheads will steal your cat converter straight off your shit in the middle of the night. My dad used to make BANK like that. Me, I keep an eye out for those little motherfuckers, and keep my pistol handy.

Here, in the wrong areas, the crackheads will steal your cat converter straight off your shit in the middle of the night. My dad used to make BANK like that. Me, I keep an eye out for those little motherfuckers, and keep my pistol handy.

hahaha wtf shit, never heard that one before!

Who would you sell these cat converters to? Keep in mind I'm not stealing them, everyone dumps their old cars in random places. Would car repair shops take them?

Who would you sell these cat converters to? Keep in mind I'm not stealing them, everyone dumps their old cars in random places. Would car repair shops take them?

Nah, take the palladium and platinum out of the converters and sell it to an exchanger. You can't just go to a repairman and try and sell them about 20 converters. They know what's up with that stuff.

Nah, take the palladium and platinum out of the converters and sell it to an exchanger. You can't just go to a repairman and try and sell them about 20 converters. They know what's up with that stuff.

Okay, thanks. Does anyone else know of that guide on cleaning it that SoH mentioned? Google keeps giving me stuff about how the metals clean the exhaust, and not how to clean the metals them selfs.

Edit: Found some info, if anyone's interested. http://www.wetdreams.ws/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3397&whichpage=1#29115

He and I were just talking about this the other day, and I mentioned seeing a show about the entire industry around these metals, which was cool as fuck but I can't remember the name of the show. The info is out there. I seem to remember smelting.

I read up on this catalytic converter selling business and it seems to have got big around the end of 2007. The thieves sell them to recycling plants and scrapyards and can get up to $100 per converter. Some vehicles the converters can be removed in under a minute.

I wish I could have taken mine off in a minute. The cat on my s10 starting rattling, so me and my neighbor jacked it up to take it off. We had to break the bolts off, and bring it to a garage to pound out the seized bolts.

I wish I could have taken mine off in a minute. The cat on my s10 starting rattling, so me and my neighbor jacked it up to take it off. We had to break the bolts off, and bring it to a garage to pound out the seized bolts.
They just saw the motherfucker off.

What exactly would a Totsean (specifcly LT) use pallidium and platinum for, besides reselling it?

What exactly would a Totsean (specifcly LT) use pallidium and platinum for, besides reselling it?
As a catalyst.

As a catalyst.

I see.

And a good use of a catalyst would be for reduction of phenylacetylene to styrene?
Relating to this (http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=2143014) thread?

I see.

And a good use of a catalyst would be for reduction of phenylacetylene to styrene?
Relating to this (http://www.totse.com/community/showthread.php?t=2143014) thread?

Yes or hydrogenations, but you can still buy the needed chem for cheap, as of now.

If you did want to go from phenylacetylene to styrene, you would have to rather picky about your catalyst...

A flat out hydrogenation using Pd black would take it all the way down to ethyl benzene...

I heard the word Palladium black a few times but never figured out what it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_black
a coarse sponge-like form of it? Is it something like activated charcoal? Can you make it out of regular palladium?

Alot of these articles talk about thieves taking catalytic converters off with a blowtorch. My friends a mechanic and says if you blow torched that close to the gas tank theres a good chance you'll blow the whole car up. I never looked at the positioning of a catalytic converter before.

I heard the word Palladium black a few times but never figured out what it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_black
a coarse sponge-like form of it? Is it something like activated charcoal? Can you make it out of regular palladium?

IIRC it's exactly like activated charcoal, wherin it's just airsponged palladium to give it ridiculous surface area. Not to be confused with black platinum, aka, adam's catalyst.

I heard the word Palladium black a few times but never figured out what it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_black
a coarse sponge-like form of it? Is it something like activated charcoal? Can you make it out of regular palladium?



yeah - it's just very finely divided elemental palladium - dunno how you would go about actually making it yourself though- most would use Pd/C to effect hydrogenation

thinking about it, electrochemical reduction of a palladium salt might be a good place to start...

It seems kind of likely that the palladium in catalytic convertors would be on a solid support though, in order to increase the surface area.

Search SM and WD (I believe) to find some guides on how to make Palladium black. Some guides used activated charcoal and kind of coated it with Palladium, so the Palladium black had the same surface area as the carbon.

Search SM and WD (I believe) to find some guides on how to make Palladium black. Some guides used activated charcoal and kind of coated it with Palladium, so the Palladium black had the same surface area as the carbon.

This is just palladium on carbon (Pd/C)

If you did want to go from phenylacetylene to styrene, you would have to rather picky about your catalyst...

A flat out hydrogenation using Pd black would take it all the way down to ethyl benzene...

hmm raney nickel? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raney_nickel

I recall it was what it was proposed at the hive (i will double check tho'). How about this TEMPO catalyst i have been here so much about? Anyone know more about it? I checked it out briefly (look on SM), sounds promising to me. The best i have seen so far is this:

http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=10704

This should enable most people to do home hydrogenation (with proper skills and an average set up!) with a little more ease! Its not pyrophoric like pd/c !