Raney type skeleton catalysts

A considerable contribution to the development of alkaline fuel cells was made toward the end of the 1950s by the German physicists Eduard Justi and his coworkers. They made electrodes with nonplatinum catalysts, the so-called Raney-type skeleton metals nickel for the hydrogen side and silver for the oxygen side (Justi et al. 1954). The catalysts were included into a matrix of carbonyl nickel. These electrodes were named Doppel-Skelett (DSK) = double skeleton electrodes (Justi and Winsel, 1962). 

For industrial hydrogenation of vegetable and animal oils in Russia a Raney type nickel was prepared by Bag and co-workers (64). Preparation of detergents from hydrogenated fats has been reported (11). Reviews of these so-called skeleton catalysts were published by Russian investigators, for instance, by Lel chuk and co-workers (197). These catalysts have also been discussed with reference to hydrocarbon synthesis from water gas (148). Lel chuk (197) states that Raney nickel is more drastic for water gas synthesis than are the skeleton nickel catalysts prepared by Bag, and that Bag s copper-nickel skeleton catalysts approach nickel in their activity. Destructive hydrogenation under mild conditions was said to be possible with Bag s skeleton catalyst as described by Lel chuk. 

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