Platinum

Abstract

Platinum is not a common element at 3.7% × 10⁻⁷% or 0.003 parts per million (p.p.m.) in the Earth’s Crust, although it is about ten times more common than gold. It is in a group of noble precious metals in the middle of the transition metal block of the Periodic Table referred to as the platinum group metals, which includes ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium and iridium. Platinum is a silvery white metal, whose name is derived from the Spanish for silver plata. Platinum, along with the platinum group metals rhodium, palladium and iridium adopts the face centered cubic crystal structure – the other two platinum group metals ruthenium and osmium adopt the hexagonal-close-packed crystal structure. Its most useful properties are that it is very malleable and, thus, can be drawn into wire and beaten in thin sheets, and its excellent corrosion and oxidation resistance.