Charcoal catalytic action

Dobereiner s best-known discovery was the kindling of a jet of hydrogen impinging in air on spongy platinum, on the basis of which he devised the Dobereiner lamp . Dobereiner showed that hydrogen becomes odourless when passed over moist charcoal. He discovered the catalytic action of manganese dioxide in the decomposition of potassium chlorate by heat and explained it as the action of a porous body. He introduced the name metalytic action for the catalytic action of platinum. 

The reduction of a-oximino acids to a-amino acids is accomplished by catalytic hydrogenation with a Raney nickel or palladium-charcoal catalyst or by the action of sodium or aluminum amalgam. ... 

Thebainone-A can also be prepared by the catalytic rearrangement of codeine [vi] under the influence of palladized charcoal at 80° C. [2] by the hydrolysis of thebainone-A enol methyl ether [vn] (prepared by the rearrangement of codeine methyl ether on heating with sodium ethoxide) [3] by the hydrolysis of /j-ethylthiocodide [vm] (obtained by the action of sodium ethoxide on bromo- or /3-chlorocodide) [4-8] (see Chap. XVII) and, in small amount, by the hydrolysis of dihydrothe-baine- [iv] [3]. 

Warburg,11 who suggested that cell respiration is catalyzed by heavy metals contained in living cells, observed that chemicals that poison such action also inhibit similar catalytic properties in charcoal. Thus, hydrocyanic acid poisons living cells and also the catalytic properties of carbon. Both effects are ascribed to adsorption on active centers that contain iron. 

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