page_title: Palladium
section_title: Applications
hierarchical_section_title: Palladium / Applications
caption_attribution_description: Aufgeschnittener metalkatalysator für ein Kfz, 17:40, 25. Sep 2004 Stahlkocher 640 x 297 (43410 Byte) (Aufgeschnittener metalkatalysator für ein Kfz, {{Bild-CC-by-sa}})
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: Cross section of a metal-core catalytic converter
exif: {}