Electronic structure and catalytic behavior of tungsten carbide.

Tungsten carbide has been shown to be an effective catalyst for a number of reactions that are readily catalyzed by platinum, but not at all by tungsten, and it was speculated that this behavior is due to changes in the electron distribution when carbon is added to tungsten. A test of this hypothesis, made by measuring the valence band x-ray photoelectron spectrum of tungsten carbide and comparing it with the spectra of tungsten and platinum, shows that, near the Fermi level, the electronic density of states of tungsten carbide more nearly resembles that of platinum than that of tungsten.

The NBS Alloy Data Center: Description of Index to the Literature.

Computerized listings of 10,000 research papers, indexed at the Alloy Data Center, are now being made available in two forms. In the first, the Permuted Materials Index, all records are arranged alphabetically by chemical symbol. Records referring to alloys or compounds are listed under each of the constituent elements. In the second, the Author Index, all papers are listed alphabetically by first author in three groupings: the first, the NMR papers; the second, the soft x-ray papers; and the third, a broad group of papers that have been of general interest to the Alloy Physics Section. The magnetic tape on which the indexed file is stored will be made available at a future date.