Platinum is especially suitable as a catalyst for fuel cells, because it can make hydrogen and oxygen react at the best rate, and at the same time it is stable enough to withstand the complex chemical environment and high current density in fuel cells and play an effective role for a long time. So our story begins with platinum. As a research-oriented migrant worker who deals with precious metals all day, he agrees with the saying that "expensive is expensive". Precious metals around 300 yuan/g are often very conductive, extremely stable, extremely corrosion-resistant, smooth and shiny, and can be used as ornaments, and even have excellent chemical properties, which can be described as everyone's favorite. It's like trying to get into college, becoming a small white-collar worker after graduation, saving the down payment for the subway house in the suburbs, the children going to school, the elderly seeing a doctor, the wife's leg broken at home, and the old age becoming a burden for the children in the family society. However, there are always some people who live well. When I was a child, I was a good boy handed down by my relatives. They studied the most valuable major in a first-class university. Within a few years after graduation, they successfully started a business with an annual salary of one million. While studying for an MBA, they met their ideal partner. At the age of 30, they began to have five children and retired early for a global holiday. The world is so unfair, and the gap between people is bigger than that between people and dogs. The best 2% or even 2‰ people are not only fierce, but also bitter, and they have to lead ordinary people to live a good life. Naturally, everyone loves everyone. As long as ordinary people live their own lives and continue their genes, it will be fine. This is true in many fields of the material world. Precious metals play a unique and important role in industry. Without platinum, fuel cells may not appear. Platinum accounts for 0.00 1 in the earth's crust and generally exists in nickel and copper mines, of which 80% is in South Africa, followed by Russia and India. Millions of tons of platinum are discovered every year, and its industrial use is very important, which makes platinum an important precious metal trade. Many industrial uses also make platinum inferior to gold. Once the industrial use is cut, the price of platinum will drop rapidly. Today I will tell the story behind the platinum mine. The earliest traces of platinum were found on a noble box full of hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt in the 7th century. Some characters made of silver have different colors. Later, scientists discovered that this unique white metal is platinum group metal. Of course, the ancient Egyptians didn't know what platinum group metals were. They must have mistaken them for silver. Gold has always been an important symbol of universal equivalence and noble status in history, while platinum has a much shorter history. /kloc-in the 0 th and 8 th centuries, there were a large number of gold mines in Spanish colonies, and platinum group metals were often regarded as impurities during extraction and processing. However, platinum group metals are extremely stable, so some "smart" mint employees make platinum into gold coins, and then gold-plated the outer layer to confuse the real. Although the fake gold coins containing platinum group metals have no practical value, a large number of platinum samples still flow into Europe through Spain, which has aroused the research of European scholars. Many scholars in Britain and France have gradually discovered that platinum has a very high melting point, but it can still be purified by melting platinum minerals with arsenic. Ferdinand VI of Bourbon Dynasty died in 1859, so his younger brother Carlos III succeeded to the Spanish throne. European nobles always intermarry with their relatives. After several generations of marriage, men have basically lost their fertility, and they may be addicted to poetry and even carpentry. However, this Carlos III not only gave birth to 13 children, but also vigorously carried out reforms to eliminate the disadvantages accumulated by the feudal system. Wang Yuan, a new country, inherited the fiefs and wars of his mother's family and became the king of Naples and Sicily. During his reign, he supported new noble to suppress the old aristocracy, prevented young people from joining the church and weakened the power of the church, and changed harsh laws to weaken the power of legal professionals. Through these three points, the very harsh feudal hierarchy has been effectively alleviated and the local appearance has taken on a new look. After he succeeded the king of Spain, he continued his revolutionary reform system and strongly supported the development of science, industry and agriculture. Carlos III was the one who prevented the kingdom from being crushed by the wheel of history. This kind of reform that touches the interests of old money is bound to be quite uncomfortable. After Carlos III's death, his successor, Charles IV, the son of Spain, immediately gave up his father's reform measures, which made the Spanish army lose ground under the attack of the French revolutionary army. This can't help but remind people of the experience of a leader of an eastern country. After the implementation of "spreading the fields into acres" and "returning the fire consumption to the public", Carlos III set up a museum in Madrid to store a large number of mineral specimen records, and appointed Irish scientist William Bowers as the person in charge. Bowles realized in his previous research that platinum should have other uses besides counterfeiting gold coins. 1774, other ministers of the kingdom also realized that platinum has all the conditions to become a precious metal: it is stable, rare, difficult to process and can be made into utensils. They even suggested that people who cast gold coins should be rewarded. So Spain issued a decree that platinum should belong to the emperor like gold. The decree required that platinum should not be traded, and all of it was transported from the colony to Madrid, which opened the curtain of Spain's "Platinum Age". Under the initiative of Carlos III to develop science, Spain began to build a "world-class" university. During this period, Pierre Franois Chabaneau, a young French scholar, was attracted by the high salary offered by Carlos III and went to Spain to study minerals. He comes from a noble family in France and has traveled around Europe to learn about local customs and advanced scientific and cultural knowledge. With the support of Carlos III Youth Science Foundation, Chabaneau and his colleagues successfully separated gold, silver, lead, copper and other elements from platinum minerals, and announced the results at a similar news conference. Since platinum group elements such as iridium and osmium are not found in the sample, the platinum obtained by Chabaneau is not pure platinum. After discovering the platinum forging technology, Chabaneau was asked by his boss to keep the technical secret, and received a very generous reward from Carlos III, from money to status. At this time, as long as he is not a fool, he can realize that platinum has extremely high economic value. Chabaneau also visited European countries again with platinum samples, which was not only warmly welcomed, but also welcomed by researchers from other countries who tried to steal technology. After returning to Spain, Chabaneau led his forging master to build a large platinum holy grail weighing 2 kilograms for Carlos III, and then gave it to Pope pope pius vi in 1789. Chabaneau, the holy grail of platinum weighing 2kg, also found a series of application environments of platinum, such as navigation or astronomical instruments, and platinum crucibles were used to make the best telescope lenses. However, due to the royal decree, Cha Barneo could not try too much on platinum which had nothing to do with the royal family. He also left Spain for his old age on 1799 for physical reasons. Since then, platinum has been firmly monopolized by the Spanish royal family, and musical instrument jewelry made of platinum has also become a symbol of kingship. In addition to strictly restricting the mining and circulation of platinum, the royal family also bought a large number of slaves to vigorously mine platinum mines. At that time, for every 150 pound of platinum ore shipped to Spain, miners could only earn 2-3 pounds from it. After Chabana retired, another Frenchman, Joseph Louis Rupster, came to Spain to take over the job. The French asked for a lot of platinum and platinum ore for research. In fact, apart from Proust's platinum for scientific research and Carlos III's Holy Grail, the Spanish did not use platinum on a large scale, and platinum was also used to forge some king's tableware, new weights and so on. However, the cleverness of the Colombian colony coiners was taken away by the Spanish coinage project, and they carried it forward, not only using platinum (in fact, simply purified platinum ore) to cast gold coins, but also using copper-platinum-gold three-layer structure to cast them. During the Napoleonic Wars, France invaded Spain, and various scientific research institutions founded by Carlos III were burned down, and Spain lost its scientific highland. Just like an emperor who visited the south of the Yangtze River seven times, the last glory of the Platinum Age was that Charles IV, the black sheep of Spain, built a new palace near Madrid, imitating the little Trianon Palace designed by Louis XV at Versailles. He also invited two famous architects of Napoleon, Pershill and Fontaine, to design the most gorgeous interior for the palace, with a lot of platinum decoration. A large number of palaces are decorated with platinum. In view of the huge exploitation, the royal family did not consume too much platinum until Charles IV of Spain abdicated. Later, the restored King Ferdinand VII of Spain was restored, and a large amount of unrefined platinum was also found in the new * * *. So there is no special glory in this platinum age. Since then, platinum mining and platinum preparation techniques have spread in Europe, and Spanish colonies such as Colombia have started independence movements one after another with the Napoleonic Wars. Spain, a powerful sea power country and the strongest country in Europe, has also lost its glory. In that barbaric era, the Spanish colonists exercised extremely harsh rule in the colonies and oppressed the local Indians and lower-class whites crazily. Ore mining was a highly dangerous industry. We all know that a large number of black miners have suffered inhuman treatment, but there is no historical record. History will repeat itself. After Colombia, Russia discovered a large number of platinum mines and became an important exporter of platinum mines. At the beginning of the 20th century, the industrial catalytic performance of platinum was discovered, and the global demand for platinum continued to grow. Johnson & Johnson Feng Wan, the most important company in precious metals field, was established in 18 17. Pecard Norton Zhuangxin, the founder, first forged precious metal jewelry, but George Feng Wan 185 1 joined in, and the company officially changed its name to Zhuangxin Fengwan, until today. After discovering the industrial use of precious metals, the company transformed and produced various precious metal catalysts in time. Up to now, a large number of catalysts in PEM fuel cells and water electrolytic cells come from this company, which has become the most important precious metal catalyst manufacturer in the world. Let's talk about another important platinum mine, South Africa. Originally, Russia provided platinum ore for Zhuang Xinfeng Pill, but in 1924, Mao Xiong's soul broke out and he set up his own company to carry out platinum business, which stopped the supply of platinum ore to foreign countries. Zhuang Xinfeng Maru had to send engineers around the world to find new platinum mines to maintain its leading position in the industry. 1924, an experienced farmer in transvaal province discovered a similar platinum mine in a stream near his home. Since then, South Africa has become the most important platinum mine in the world. When it comes to South Africa, many people think of violent conflicts, bloodshed, and Mandela. A movie called "Blood Diamond" let the world know the evil deeds driven by interests behind diamond mining, and profiteering makes people become ghosts. After watching this movie, my cousin and boyfriend decided not to buy a diamond ring, but they never expected that South Africa is rich in mineral resources, not only diamond mining, but also platinum mining. Compared with diamond, an ornament with little practical use, platinum is closely related to the civilized world. For example, automobile exhaust purifiers need platinum catalysts. Even if we don't consume diamonds to avoid hurting diamond miners in South Africa, who can not drive without a car? South Africa has implemented apartheid since 1948, and the main group engaged in mining industry must be the bottom blacks. Mining is hard and dangerous. According to the apartheid system, blacks can't engage in technical jobs, but can only do the hardest and most tiring jobs. The African countries around South Africa are far poorer than South Africa, and the blacks in these countries and South Africa should naturally become ghosts under capital accumulation. In South Africa's gold mines, managers have designed a set of ingenious and effective immigrant labor procedures for how to effectively oppress black miners. For example, black miners must be employed by employment companies, leaving their families in the countryside when they work, and their families have low income from farming. In order to support their families, miners have to accept the low wages in the mining area. Once miners try to resist or activists try to organize * * *, the miners involved will be hacked by all employment companies and returned to poor black residential areas. Black miners can only live in a dormitory like a prison, and once there is a riot, they can quickly control the situation. In the 1970s, the salary of black miners was only one twentieth of that of white miners, and in the 1980s, it was only one sixth. Black miners earned a lot of foreign exchange for South Africa, but the mortality rate of South African mines was six times higher than that of British mines. Of course, black miners will actively resist the struggle, but due to the lack of advanced theory as a guide, trade union activities have been repeatedly stopped by mines or police, and the National Miners' Union was not established until 1985. 1On August 8, 987, a demonstration of 340,000 people broke out in the mining area near Johannesburg, which paralyzed half of the gold mines and a few coal mines in South Africa and caused losses of hundreds of millions of dollars. The struggle is always effective. This time, the black miners won some rights. In addition to raising wages and pensions, miners who participate in * * * can return to work in the mining area as usual. The so-called revolution is not a dinner party, but a naked bloody struggle. 20 12 miners in the platinum mining area in Marikana, South Africa * * *, supporters of the two major trade unions clashed violently due to contradictions, and the South African police intervened in violent repression, eventually resulting in 45 deaths. This became the biggest conflict in South Africa after apartheid ended in 1994, and * * * finally ended with a 22% salary increase for miners. This * * * led to a 20% increase in global platinum and palladium prices. If the demand for precious metal catalysts increases greatly, I really don't know what it will bring to South Africa. South African miners with sticks * * * * The income gap between South African whites and blacks is huge. In 20 1 1 year, the per capita annual income of South Africa was 65,438+million rand, while the monthly salary of miners before 20 12 years was only 5,500 rand. Although the average income does not mean anything, the monthly salary of miners does not match the risks and injuries they bear. Before the conflict of 20 12, which was described as "bloody platinum mine", there had been many platinum mine accidents and many platinum miners in South Africa. Even if South African miners get a raise, other problems such as occupational diseases and safety of working environment will continue to struggle for it. As Marx said, when capital comes to this world, dirty things are flowing in every pore. These basic rights really need to be won by bloody battles. Just like the typical "open chest and lung examination" incident in China, those pneumoconiosis miners failed to work out of poverty, but lost their health and became a drag on their families. Economic development and social progress have nothing to do with them. I often read reports or news about the living conditions of factory workers. Previously, I saw that the quality inspectors in some electronics factories only recruited 65,438+08.9 girls with excellent eyesight. After doing this job with a monthly salary of several hundred thousand, their eyesight will drop a lot. Similar examples are still being staged in factories. It seems that the respectability of the civilized world must be based on the blood and tears of resource-based areas, and the existing scientific and technological level of human beings really cannot support everyone in the world to live a warm and happy life of the middle class, that's all. Even if we fuel cell practitioners know where precious metal catalysts come from and what we have experienced, there is nothing we can do. By the way, China has low platinum reserves, low platinum content in platinum mines, and its annual platinum consumption leads the world. In addition to trying to control overseas platinum mines, it is also necessary to improve the recovery and utilization rate of platinum. Of course, with the improvement of exploration technology, other platinum mines may be discovered. This is the first story of the fuel cell series. In the following articles, I will also talk about the history of fuel cells in an all-round way, as well as the energy and chemical industries involved. Friends interested in fuel cells can pay attention to me. If you like this article, please give me a compliment.