Hello, everyone today, I want to tell you about the most precious metal on Earth -Platinum-.
In the periodic table of chemical elements platinum is located in the 10th group
and is also a part of the so-called platinum group of precious and rare metals.
Platinum is considered to be the most precious metal,
although in fact it's not the last common in the Earth's crust,
it occurs a little less often than gold although at a price somewhat inferior to the latter.
For the last 100 years platinum has been worth more than gold,
but because of the active development of industry, as well at the recent drop of oil prices,
the price of platinum declined and became lower that than of gold.
As it is used increasingly more in electronics and the chemical industry.
Platinum has a very high density that is 8.5% more than gold.
In this small drop there is one gram of platinum. According to the chemical activity,
platinum is an ally of gold, although still slightly inferior to the latter.
In air, platinum does not oxidize even when heated to 1000 degrees,
Compare the oxidized crocodile made of nickel-plated iron and a shiny ball of platinum that has practically not changed in appearance.
Platinum, unlike other precious metals, has this one
property that make it possible to use this metal not only as a decorative item, but also as a catalyst in chemical industry.
I'll demonstrate this property to you by oxidizing ammonia on the
surface of platinum wire, which I have bent in the form of it's chemical symbol.
And, by the way, platinum is a very soft metal. I put the heated platinum wire into the flask filled with ammonia,
a gas that does not burn in air. Seconds later, the platinum wire is heated and continues to glow,
participating as a catalyst in the reaction of ammonia oxidation with air's oxygen.
A catalyst is a substance that reduce the energy needed to carry out a chemical reaction,
while not being consumed itself. Ammonia does not usually burn,
but on the hot surface of platinum wire is oxidized to nitrogen monoxide.
The same thing happens if we swap ethanol with ammonia, in the glass with ethanol vapor,
the platinum wire glows being a catalyst for the oxidation of ethanol to acetic aldehyde
Platinum can even catalyze the oxidation of propane from a gas burner. I'm scorching the platinum wire, and then
extinguishing the burner, but with a new supply of propane the platinum wire continues to glow,
allowing the propane to oxidize on its surface without burning. If the wire is burnt more
densely, it can be heated to a temperature at which the burner ignites.
This property of platinum to catalyze chemical reactions
is now widely used in automotive catalytic converters, to which half of the world extracted platinum goes to.
In the exhaust system of the car
there is a casing containing porous ceramics coated with platinum as well as palladium powder.
when heated exhaust gases passes through such a catalyst,
the harmful gases nitrogen dioxide and Carbon monoxide
Are converted into the safe nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
Over time, such a catalyst wears out and the otherwise working cars as a sweetish smell of nitrogen dioxide
in the exhaust gases, and the platinum that has escaped with the exhaust gases from the converter
can be now found in the road dust.
Also the property of platinum to be a catalyst is used in the chemical industry.
For example:
with the help of platinum catalysts, there is a reaction of increasing the octane number of gasoline,
and also in the production of margarine by saturation of hydrogen or vegetable oil.
Metal-organic compounds of platinum are used to control cancerous tumors.
Also, in computer hard drives, platinum is used as a part of the magnetic layer
on the surface of the rotating shiny disks, although
it's quantity is small there.
Platinum itself is a good investment, unless
of course you tell someone that you have an ingot of platinum in your house.
Also, platinum does not react with any acid, even with concentrated nitric acid.
However, if you mix concentrated hydrochloric acid and concentrated nitric acid,
you'll get so called aqua regia, capable of dissolving platinum
the reaction of dissolving platinum in the aqua regia
only happen when heated, and during the reaction a hexachloroplatinic acid is formed,
which is used as a catalyst in organic synthesis,
as well as for determination of potassium ions.
Such a reaction is used to produce a more pure platinum from its ore concentrate.
Platinum resources in the Earth's crust are limited, since most of it is dissolved in the iron core of our planet.
Currently around 265 tons of platinum are mined in the world every year,
the demand for it is growing more and more, causing a deficit
Therefore, many businessmen are already processing the platinum from the dust
settling on the roads of cities, because what flies out from the cars pipes is not only the exhaust gases,
but also the platinum particles from the catalytic converter.
Maybe in the future there will be a platinum rush and
Inhabitants of cities will rush to clean their city from dust, at the same time earning money from that.
But one thing is certain, in the near future the demand for platinum will only grow.
For the provided platinum for the experiments
I would like to thanks the company Novaelements.com
This company is sending every element in the periodic table of chemical elements on ebay, to collectors around the world
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