Henri Bernard Beer

Henri Beer was working from 1957 to 1972 at the company Magneto Chemie (since 2002, Magneto Special Anodes, in The Netherlands),[3][4] where he investigated the possibilities of coating titanium with a precious metal or precious metal oxide; he found this could be used to replace graphite in a chlor-alkali cell. He first experimented with rhodium electroplated onto titanium, and filed a patent on this. Almost simultaneously, but independently, J.B. Cotton's group in the Metals Division of ICI filed a patent on platinum electrodeposited onto titanium. The small-sized Magneto Chemie started collaborating with the much larger ICI on the development of titanium-based electrodes. Beer working at Magneto focussed on coating formulations, whereas others were working on the commercial viability of coatings onto titanium electrodes.[5]

The platinum electroplated titanium electrodes had a large overpotential for chlorine evolution. The next step was moving from platinum electroplated titanium to platinum-iridium mixtures applied using the paint-thermal decomposition method. This eventually resulted in a platinum-iridium Pt/Ir 70/30 composition, with a much lower overpotential for chlorine evolution.[6]

In 1965, Beer proposed another change in coating: application of ruthenium oxide onto titanium, and filed his first patent on mixed metal oxide coatings, known as Beer 1.[7] That patent described the co-deposition of titanium and ruthenium oxides. Beer sold his technological concepts to the Italian company De Nora. In 1967, the Beer 2[8] patent followed, which covered the optimal, stabilized ruthenium-titanium oxide mixture (RuO₂/TiO₂) for chlorine evolution in the chlor-alkali process.[9] Since then, the titanium based electrode have been widely used in the chlorine, chlorate and hypochlorite industries.[10]