The two most common uses of platinum are as a catalytic converter for the automobile industry and as jewelry. Platinums ability to withstand high temperatures also makes it perfect for jet fuel nozzles. Other uses include electrical equipment, dentistry, surgical instruments, and jewelry. Massive and disseminated grains, wires and plates are the most common. It is very rare to have whole individual crystals, but when they are present they are cubes, dodecahedrons and octahedrons.
Specimens can tarnish to black.
Ductile, malleable and sectile, which means it can be pounded into different shapes, it can be stretched into extremely thin wires and it can be cut into slices. Color, ductility, crystal habit and the fact that it will tarnish. Acanthite, prousite, cobaltite, copper, zeolites and quartz. Its main use is in photographic film, it is also used in plating, brazing alloys, tableware, electronic equipment and of course jewelry. This page was created December 9, 1999.