page_title: Palladium
section_title: Applications
hierarchical_section_title: Palladium / Applications
caption_attribution_description: Памятная монета СССР, 25 рублей, Иван III, палладий 999 пробы, вес 31,1 г, тираж 12000. Выпущена 31 августа 1989 года.
context_page_description: Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist 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. They have similar chemical properties, but palladium has the lowest melting point and is the least dense of them.
  More than half the supply of palladium and its congener platinum is used in catalytic converters, which convert as much as 90% of the harmful gases in automobile exhaust into less noxious substances. Palladium is also used in electronics, dentistry, medicine, hydrogen purification, chemical applications, groundwater treatment, and jewelry. Palladium is a key component of fuel cells, which react hydrogen with oxygen to produce electricity, heat, and water.
  Ore deposits of palladium and other PGMs are rare.
context_section_description: The largest use of palladium today is in catalytic converters. Palladium is also used in jewelry, dentistry, watch making, blood sugar test strips, aircraft spark plugs, surgical instruments, and electrical contacts. Palladium is also used to make professional transverse (concert or classical) flutes. As a commodity, palladium bullion has ISO currency codes of XPD and 964. Palladium is one of only four metals to have such codes, the others being gold, silver and platinum. Because it adsorbs hydrogen, palladium is a key component of the controversial cold fusion experiments that began in 1989.
caption: The Soviet 25-rouble commemorative palladium coin is a rare example of the monetary usage of palladium.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:07:28 20:24:36", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5131", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "816", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "400"}