Platinum Black? (Was: Re: [rescue] SCRAPPLE)

[George Adkins]

On Thursday 15 November 2001 12:44 pm, you wrote:
> > >The sad thing is, now you can't even buy platinum black from a chem
> > >supplier without business ID and the DEA coming by to see what you're up
> > >to.  Being an unauthorized curious experimenter is now officially a
> > > crime.
> >
> > Ok, I've got to ask...
> > What illicit substance is platinum black used in?
>
> Platinum black is used to plate inert chemical electrodes.  I use it
> all the time in electical conductivity experiments.  Basically, you
> take chloroplatinic acid solution and plate it out using a DC current
> of a few ma at 1.5 volts or so onto the electrodes.  I can't even imagine
> what the DEA would what to know about the stuff.  Other than being maybe
> mildly toxic, and able to cause irritations and alergies, it is not that
> problematic a compound.  I have used it in the lab, here, for over 20
> years with complete safety.
>
It is precisely it's catalytic properties which might cause them to regulate 
it.  Think about it, a powder catalyst you can mix into a solution to 
catalyze a reaction and then centrifuge out and re-use.  it's totally inert 
and doen not combine with the reactants (duh, of course... it's a 
catalyst...).  
Read up on the making of -amides (organic chem) and look at the DEA's absurd 
and unneccessary longstanding war against phenethylamine psychedelics of all 
kinds. (2C-B, 2C-T's, DOB, DOET, MDA, TMA, MDMA...)
Also, most narcotics are phenanthrine derivatives, hydoxylated and methylated 
in various ways... again, manufacture.