   palladium is a chemical element with symbol&nbsp;pd and atomic number 46. it is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by william hyde wollaston. he named it after the asteroid pallas, which was itself named after the epithet of the greek goddess athena, acquired by her when she slew pallas. palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium form a group of elements referred to as the platinum group metals (pgms). these have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them. over half of the supply of palladium and its congener platinum goes into catalytic converters, which convert up to 90% of harmful gases from auto exhaust (hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide) into less-harmful substances (nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water vapor). palladium is also used in electronics, dentistry, medicine, hydrogen purification, chemical applications, groundwater treatment and jewelry. palladium plays a key role in the technology used for fuel cells, which combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water. ore deposits of palladium and other pgms are rare, and the most extensive deposits have been found in the norite belt of the bushveld igneous complex covering the transvaal basin in south africa, the stillwater complex in montana, united states, the thunder bay district of ontario, canada, and the norilsk complex in russia. recycling is also a source of palladium, mostly from scrapped catalytic converters. the numerous applications and limited supply sources of palladium result in the metal attracting considerable investment interest. ==characteristics== palladium belongs to group&nbsp;10 in the periodic table, but has a very atypical configuration in its outermost electron shells compared to the other members of group 10 (see also niobium (41), ruthenium (44), and rhodium (45)), having fewer filled electron shells than the elements directly preceding it (a phenomenon unique to palladium). this makes its valence shell have 10 more electrons than the noble gases. {| class="wikitable floatleft" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" |- !z !! element !! no. of electrons/shell |- | 28 || nickel || 2, 8, 16, 2 or 2, 8, 17, 1 |- | 46 || palladium || 2, 8, 18, 18 |- | 78 || platinum || 2, 8, 18, 32, 17, 1 |- | 110 || darmstadtium || 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 16, 2 (predicted) |} palladium is a soft silver-white metal that res
Chemical_elements Noble_metals Palladium Precious_metals Transition_metals