So, I've reached (atomic no.) 46, which is cool cos it's palladium, Pd - named after the asteroid Pallas, after Pallas, slain by the Greek goddess of wisdom, handicraft & warfare (there's a combo, eh?), Athena.
Shall we have a little palladium thread? Since you insist...
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Shall we have a little palladium thread? Since you insist...
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It's a great catalyst & is used in catalytic converters, in cars, which help convert unburned HCs, CO, and NOx-es into carbon dioxide, nitrogen and water. And yes, CO₂ isn't great for the environment, BUT it's not so bad on the ground level. You win some, you lose some.
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(2/16)
But it's spendy. More expensive than gold: it costs nearly £2k an ounce (~ £55/gram). It's dense, too (though the least dense of the Pt group metals) so that doesn't get you far. A cm³ of the stuff weighs about 21.5 g & would cost you something like £1200.
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Cos of this, cat converter theft is common. Thieves cut the cat out of a parked car and sell it on. You probably won't even notice, until you drive away and your car starts making one hell of a racket. Cat converters sell for around £200 on the black market.
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(4/16)
Let's do some history...
William Hyde Wollaston noted a new noble metal in Jul 1802. He was working around Soho, London.
He had a friend called Tennant. Wollaston was energetic & Tennant was reportedly rather lazy.
Yeah, those two got everywhere #GoodOmens 😉 Anyway...
(5/16)
William Hyde Wollaston noted a new noble metal in Jul 1802. He was working around Soho, London.
He had a friend called Tennant. Wollaston was energetic & Tennant was reportedly rather lazy.
Yeah, those two got everywhere #GoodOmens 😉 Anyway...
(5/16)
Wollaston wanted to make his fortune. So in 1800 they bought a large quantity of illegally smuggled "platina" (platinum ore) from the Spanish colony of Nueva Granada, now Colombia.
Tennant put up the money. Wollaston had special secret metal methods. Or something.
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Tennant put up the money. Wollaston had special secret metal methods. Or something.
(6/16)
Wollaston knew that when platina dissolved in aqua regia (a mix of nitric & hydrochloric acids) there was always black gunk left over. He persuaded Tennant that said gunk was of interest, while he worked on the dissolved stuff, which he thought contained another element.
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(7/16)
It did: it contained a rhodium complex. (But that was last year 😉)
In 1802 he isolated another metal that was first called ceresium after the asteroid Ceres, & later renamed palladium after the other asteroid. Not sure what the asteroid obsession was all about, but hey.
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In 1802 he isolated another metal that was first called ceresium after the asteroid Ceres, & later renamed palladium after the other asteroid. Not sure what the asteroid obsession was all about, but hey.
(8/16)
Anyway, this is the really fun bit: instead of sensibly publishing his work in a journal, he advertised samples as "Palladium, or New Silver.a new Noble Metal" for sale at 5 shillings.
The handbill was displayed in the window of 26 Gerrard Street, Soho.
(9/16)
The handbill was displayed in the window of 26 Gerrard Street, Soho.
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The entire stock was bought up by the Irish chemist Richard Chenevix, who insisted it was actually a platinum-mercury alloy.
So Wollaston offered a reward to anyone who could "make" palladium from these two metals.
No one could.
(10/16)
So Wollaston offered a reward to anyone who could "make" palladium from these two metals.
No one could.
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After all this mucking about, Wollaston published the details of his isolation of palladium properly in 1805.
Proven wrong, Chenevix gave up on chemistry and became a successful playwright.
Because why not.
(11/16)
Proven wrong, Chenevix gave up on chemistry and became a successful playwright.
Because why not.
(11/16)
What was in Tennant's black gunk? Wellll....
That made something very stinky which ultimately turned out to contain osmium (I've got a few years to go before I get to that one 😉) and also something very pretty, which contained iridium (likewise, but even more so!)
(12/16)
That made something very stinky which ultimately turned out to contain osmium (I've got a few years to go before I get to that one 😉) and also something very pretty, which contained iridium (likewise, but even more so!)
(12/16)
In terms of applications, for a while palladium chloride was used to treat tuberculosis, but it had lots of nasty side effects, causing bone marrow, liver and kidney damage. It was replaced as soon as better treatments came along.
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(13/16)
These days it's mostly catalysis, but also dentistry, jewellery, electronics & blood sugar test strips which have an inbuilt palladium electrode. There's been research into the recovery of Pd from said strips because of its value. Bet you had no idea, diabetics, huh?
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(14/16)
It has lots of other uses, including in organic syntheses, but in particular it has a role in making fine-art black-and-white prints using the platinotype printing process, where palladium is an alternative to silver.
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(15/16)
And Pallas, from whom we get the name? Well, he (probably) was a giant (maybe) & after Athena killed him (/her) she used his (/her) skin as a shield (or cloak) & adopted the epithet Pallas Athena. It’s messy.
Thus concludes our tour of element 46.
Next year: silver!
(16/16)
Thus concludes our tour of element 46.
Next year: silver!
(16/16)
@threadreaderapp unroll, please!
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