Palladium Metal Attributes
William Hyde Wollaston discovered palladium in 1803 and named it after the asteroid Pallas discovered two years earlier in 1801. Pallas was the Greek goddess of wisdom.
Palladium belongs to a family of six metals clustered closely in the vicinity of platinum in the periodic table and called the platinum group of metals or PGMs. Ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum together make up the platinum group metals.
Palladium resides in group 10, period 5 and block d in the periodic table and is categorized as a transition metal. Transition Metals share the properties of being ductile, malleable, and conductors of electricity and heat.
All transition metals also display the common property of being able to form coloured compounds mainly by anodizing. The process involves creating oxide layers of varying thickness and refractive properties on the metal surface. This attribute is useful for making jewelry in many colors.
Palladium occurs in nature in the ores of copper, nickel, gold and platinum and these ores are found in Canada, Australia, Africa, South and North America.
One very uncommon property of palladium is that it can soak up to nine hundred times its own volume of hydrogen. Hydrogen easily diffuses through heated palladium and this provides a means of purifying the gas.
There is something almost mysterious about the properties of Palladium and human life has grown to be a lot remarkable on this unusual metal.
It is commonly used in fabricating electric contacts, surgical instruments, non-magnetic elements of watches etc. It works silently in the catalyst converters of our cars to lower air pollution; it works in water treatment factories to clean our ground water thus supporting our environment; it provides fuel cells so we can drive pollution free, high energy efficient hydrogen fuel cell cars; it may also provide cold fusion energy to substitute our fossil fuel energy sources.
In recent years palladium has grown to be very popular among jewelers, jewelry designers and jewelry users for quite a few good reasons.
Palladium is classified as a precious metal. Its monitory worth is comparable to that of gold and it is around one third the value of platinum.
It does not respond to oxygen and hence it is impervious to tarnish. This property is particularly useful in case of intricate designs which become tricky to clean or polish.
Palladium jewelry is created out of 95% pure metal. The large degree of purity makes the jewelry hypoallergenic which means that it does not cause any allergic responses from the skin.
It has a gorgeous white metallic luster comparable to that of platinum. The pure, Vivid white color of palladium adds to the sparkle of diamonds and other valuable gemstones to great effect.
It is very malleable and ductile and is a member of the platinum group of metals.
Palladium has a much lower melting point than platinum. The lower melting point means that artisan jewelers and designers can work with it without the need of special equipment. It makes possible the crafting of jewelry of complex and intricate patterns.
White gold is often prepared as an alloy of gold which has been decolorized by the addition of palladium.
Palladium is a magical and romantic fairy tale Cinderella Metal which humanity cannot live without.
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