[Blacksheepaalredy]

Japan creates synthetic version of rare earth metal palladium

Japanese scientists have developed a synthetic version of the rare earth metal palladium, a breakthrough that it is hoped will eventually reduce industry's reliance on exports from China.

By Julian Ryall in Tokyo 7:00AM GMT 03 Jan 2011

Researchers at Kyoto University achieved the world-first by uniting molecules of rhodium and silver, which do not naturally combine, through the fusion of ultramicroscopic particles of the metals after they had been reduced to a fine solution spray.

Each particle is a mere 10 nanometers in diameter, Professor Hiroshi Kitagawa told the Yomiuri newspaper, but the new alloy has the same properties as palladium.

Exports from China of palladium - which is a crucial part of next-generation engines and serves to clean exhaust gases and absorb high levels of hydrogen - were abruptly halted in the wake of a territorial dispute between Beijing and China.

In September, a Chinese fishing vessel operating within Japan's exclusive economic zone around the Senkaku Islands, the very southernmost tip of Okinawa Prefecture, rammed a Japanese Coast Guard patrol vessel.

The captain of the trawler was arrested, causing an outcry in Beijing, which claims the uninhabited islands as sovereign Chinese territory.

The Chinese fisherman was eventually released without being charged, but not before Beijing imposed a ban on shipments to Japanese firms.

As well as Japan's automobile industry, rare earth materials such as yttrium, praseodymium and thulium are important for companies here producing everything from infrared lasers to alloys for aerospace components, batteries, ceramic capacitors and parts for computer memory chips.

The scientists said the new alloy will be difficult to produce commercially at this point but the production process is expected to lead to the development of more synthetic alloys that can be used as alternatives to rare earth metals.

Joint research has already begun with car companies and Japanese electronics manufacturers, Prof Kitagawa said.