I'm translating a Japanese patent into English; the subject concerns
exhaust gas cleaning catalysts which are supported on monolithic
supports. The phonetic transliterations of two of these supports are
"pentallite" and "sponjument" and I can't come up with the correctly
spelled English equivalents.  I'll pay $5.00 for each one.

hi frank2

The first word may well be far easier to translate than the second. 
The PGM (platinum group metal) catalyst itself should be held within a
ceramic.  I think that "pentallite" may well be petalite.  Petalite
[Li Al Si_4 O_10] is used within some ceramics and has heat and shock
resistant qualities.   These would be critical to a successful
automotive catalytic converter.

Sponjument is a little more problematical.  The catalyst will need
have some 'sponge' like properties.  Given that the suffix 'ment'
means act or process, I would translate "sponjument" as sponging (i.e
the exchange of molecules).  Rhodia Electronics define one of their
products, ACTALYS as an oxygen sponge [quote: 'oxygen-sponge' being
capable of rapidly absorbing and releasing oxygen according to the
catalytic reaction required (reduction or oxydation)].

The other possibility is that it could simply be refering to a sponge
like structure.  However, the terms honeycomb and ceramic beads seem
more widely used.

You may find this recent nature article of interest.  I read it prior
to answering this question, and it details significant new research
based around using a perovskite ceramic.

http://www.nature.com/nsu/020708/020708-9.html

I hope that the above answer is of use, if you don't feel that these
translations fit the context within the patent then please feel free
to get back to me.

regards

jamesa-ga 


resources:

http://www.geology.neab.net/minerals/petalite.htm -> information on
petalite.

http://www.avalonventures.com/separation01.html -> this company mines
petalite.

http://www.rhodia-ec.com/site_ec_us/catalysis/page_automotive.htm ->
Rhodia Electronics website, with details on their catalyst products.

http://www.dict.org -> the best online dictionary (I used this to
check spelling variants).

http://www.howstuffworks.com/catalytic-converter.htm -> well, I found
it a little interesting.

search terms used: petalite + use, oxygen + sponge, sponge + catalytic
converter.

"sponjument" is still a puzzler, but Petalite is right on the money!