 Discovery Information |
| Who:
William Wollaston
|
| When: 1803 |
| Where: England |
|
| Name Origin |
| Greek: Pallas goddess of wisdom and after the asteroid discovered in 1803. |
|
| Sources |
| Obtained with platinum, nickel, copper and mercury ores. Occures primarly in Siberia, the Ural Mountains, Ontario Canada and South Africa. |
|
| Uses |
| The largest use of palladium today is in catalytic converters. It is also used in alloys for telecommunication equipment switching systems and electrical relays, catalyst for reforming cracked petroleum fractions, metallizing ceramics, mixed with gold to make "white gold" for jewellery, aircraft sparkplugs, dentistry, surgical instruments. |
|
| Notes |
| This metal has the uncommon ability to absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen at room temperatures. |
| In 2000, The Ford Motor Company created a price bubble in palladium by stockpiling large amounts of the metal, fearing interrupted supplies from Russia. As prices fell in early 2001, Ford lost nearly US$1 billion. |
