One element that came out of this work was palladium, named after the asteroid, Pallas . The metal was discovered in 1803. Palladium is a silver-white metal that is both ductile and malleable. It is more prone to attack from common acids than other platinum metals . The other platinum metals hardly respond to hydrochloric acid at room temperature.
Palladium has an unusual tendency to pick up such gases as hydrogen , and oxygen .
Palladium can absorb hydrogen up to 900 times its own volume. It is fairly reactive chemically and readily forms metallic compounds.