Palladium

46

rhodium ← palladium → silver


Ni
↑
Pd
↓
Pt




periodic table




General


Name, Symbol, Number

palladium, Pd, 46


Chemical series
transition metals


Group, Period, Block

10, 5, d


Appearance
silvery white metallic 



Atomic mass
106.42(1) g/mol


Electron configuration
[Kr] 4d10


Electrons per shell
2, 8, 18, 18, 0


Physical properties


Phase
solid


Density (near r.t.)
12.023 g/cm³


Liquid density at m.p.
10.38 g/cm³


Melting point
1828.05 K
(1554.9 °C, 2830.82 °F)


Boiling point
3236 K
(2963 °C, 5365 °F)


Heat of fusion
16.74 kJ/mol


Heat of vaporization
362 kJ/mol


Heat capacity
(25 °C) 25.98 J/(mol·K)




Vapor pressure


P/Pa
1
10
100
1 k
10 k
100 k


at T/K
1721
1897
2117
2395
2753
3234



Atomic properties


Crystal structure
cubic face centered


Oxidation states
±1
(mildly basic oxide)


Electronegativity
2.20 (Pauling scale)


Ionization energies

1st: 804.4 kJ/mol


2nd: 1870 kJ/mol


3rd: 3177 kJ/mol


Atomic radius
140 pm


Atomic radius (calc.)
169 pm


Covalent radius
131 pm


Van der Waals radius
163 pm


Miscellaneous


Magnetic ordering
no data


Electrical resistivity
(20 °C) 105.4 nΩ·m


Thermal conductivity
(300 K) 71.8 W/(m·K)


Thermal expansion
(25 °C) 11.8 µm/(m·K)


Speed of sound (thin rod)
(20 °C) 3070 m/s


Speed of sound (thin rod)
(r.t.) 121 m/s


Shear modulus
44 GPa


Bulk modulus
180 GPa


Poisson ratio
0.39


Mohs hardness
4.75


Vickers hardness
461 MPa


Brinell hardness
37.3 MPa


CAS registry number
7440-05-3


Notable isotopes




Main article: Isotopes of palladium


iso

NA

half-life

DM

DE (MeV)

DP


100Pd

syn

3.63 d

ε

-

107Rh


γ

0.084, 0.074,
 0.126

-


102Pd

1.02%

Pd is stable with 56 neutrons


103Pd

syn

16.991 d

ε

-

103Rh


104Pd

11.14%

Pd is stable with 58 neutrons


105Pd

22.33%

Pd is stable with 59 neutrons


106Pd

27.33%

Pd is stable with 60 neutrons


107Pd

syn

6.5×106 y

β-

0.033

107Ag


108Pd

26.46%

Pd is stable with 62 neutrons


110Pd

11.72%

Pd is stable with 64 neutrons


Palladium (chemical symbol Pd, atomic number 46) is a rare, silver-white metal. It is a member of the platinum group of elements and resembles platinum chemically. It is extracted from some copper and nickel ores. It has the unusual ability to absorb large quantities of hydrogen gas, expanding visibly as it does so.

Contents

1 Occurrence
2 Discovery
3 Notable characteristics

3.1 Isotopes


4 Compounds
5 Applications
6 "Cold fusion"
7 See also
8 Notes
9 References
10 External links
11 Credits



Palladium and its compounds are extremely valuable catalysts for various chemical reactions, and palladium can be found in automobile catalytic converters. Palladium alloys are used in jewelry. In addition, this element is useful in a number of other applications, including dentistry, watchmaking, aircraft spark plugs, surgical instruments, and electrical contacts. Hydrogen absorbed in palladium is highly reactive and is used in reduction reactions. Palladium dichloride may be used in detectors for carbon monoxide and tests for the corrosion-resistance of stainless steel.

Occurrence
Palladium occurs in nature as a free metal and alloyed with gold, platinum, and other platinum group metals. It has been found in placer deposits in the Ural Mountains of western Russia, and in some parts of Australia, Ethiopia, and South and North America. In addition, it is commercially produced from nickel-copper deposits in South Africa, Ontario, and Siberia. Although the proportion of palladium in the nickel-copper ores is low, the processing of large volumes of ore makes this extraction profitable.

Discovery
Palladium was discovered by William Hyde Wollaston in 1803 in England. Using a platinum ore that presumably came from South America, he performed a series of chemical reactions and obtained the compound palladium cyanide. Finally, by heating palladium cyanide, he was able to isolate palladium metal. He named the element in 1804, deriving the word from Pallas, the name of an asteroid discovered two years earlier.

Notable characteristics
 Palladium
Palladium is classified as a transition metal. In the periodic table, it lies in period five between rhodium and silver and is closely related to the latter two elements. In addition, it is situated in group ten (former group 8B), between nickel and platinum.
This silver-white metal does not react with oxygen at normal temperatures, and thus does not tarnish in air. It does, however, acquire a light tarnish in moist air containing sulfur.
This element resembles platinum, but among the platinum group metals, it has the lowest density and melting point. It is soft and ductile when annealed, but it greatly increases in strength and hardness when cold-worked. Palladium is chemically attacked by sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid in which it dissolves slowly. When it is heated to 800°C, a layer of palladium(II) oxide (PdO) is produced.
Palladium has the uncommon ability to absorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen at room temperature. As it absorbs hydrogen, it expands visibly, like a sponge that swells when soaking up water. In so doing, it is thought to form palladium hydride (PdH2), but scientists are unsure if this is a true chemical compound.
Common oxidation states of palladium are 0, +1, +2, and +4. Although it was once thought that +3 was one of the fundamental oxidation states of palladium, there is no evidence for that. When several palladium compounds were investigated by the technique of X-ray diffraction, a dimer of palladium(II) and palladium(IV) was discovered instead. Recently, researchers synthesized compounds in which palladium has an oxidation state of +6.

Isotopes
Naturally occurring palladium is composed of six stable isotopes: 102Pd, 104Pd, 105Pd, 106Pd, 108Pd, and 110Pd. In addition, numerous radioactive isotopes are known, with mass numbers ranging from 91 to 124. The longest-lived radioisotopes are 107Pd, with a half-life of 6.5 million years; 103Pd, with a half-life of 17 days; and 100Pd, with a half-life of 3.63 days. Most of the other radioisotopes have half-lives that are less than a half hour.

Compounds
Palladium(II) chloride, or palladium dichloride (PdCl2): This compound, prepared by the chlorination of palladium, is a common starting material for the synthesis of other palladium compounds. Palladium-based materials are valuable catalysts for the synthesis of organic chemicals. Moreover, palladium(II) chloride can rapidly stain stainless steel. Thus, solutions of this compound are sometimes used to test for the corrosion-resistance of stainless steel. Also, palladium(II) chloride is sometimes used in carbon monoxide detectors, as it can absorb large quantities of carbon monoxide gas.
Palladium hydride: This material consists of metallic palladium with a substantial quantity of hydrogen in its crystal lattice. At room temperature and atmospheric pressure, palladium can adsorb up to 900 times its own volume of hydrogen. Thus, palladium can store substantial quantities of hydrogen safely, and it is also useful for performing unusual chemical reactions. Details of how this adsorption process works are poorly understood.
Applications
Finely divided palladium forms a good catalyst for various chemical reactions, such as hydrogenation (addition of hydrogen atoms), dehydrogenation (removal of hydrogen atoms), and petroleum cracking (breaking of large, complex hydrocarbons to smaller, simpler ones). Also, palladium compounds are used as catalysts for reactions in which carbon-carbon bonds are formed.
The largest use of palladium today is in catalytic converters for automobiles. Much research is in progress to discover ways of replacing the much more expensive platinum with palladium in this application.
Palladium alloys are used in jewelry.
Palladium is one of two metals that can be alloyed with gold to produce "white gold." (Nickel can also be used.)
Like gold, palladium can be beaten into a thin leaf form, as thin as 100 nanometers (nm) (1/250,000 inch).
Since 1939, palladium itself has occasionally been used as a precious metal in jewelry, often as a replacement for platinum.[1]
Hydrogen readily diffuses through heated palladium. It thus provides a means of purifying the gas. Also, hydrogen dissolved in palladium is highly reactive, allowing it to be used in various chemical reductions.
Palladium and its alloys with silver are used as electrodes in multilayer ceramic capacitors.[2]
Palladium (sometimes alloyed with nickel) is used in connector platings in consumer electronics.
Palladium is also used in dentistry,[3] watch making, aircraft spark plugs, and the production of surgical instruments and electrical contacts.
This element is also used to make professional transverse flutes.
It is also used for palladium-hydrogen electrodes in electrochemical studies.
Palladium dichloride is sometimes used in carbon monoxide detectors and in tests for the corrosion-resistance of stainless steel, as noted above.
"Cold fusion"
In March 1989, researchers Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced that they had found a way to carry out a safe nuclear reaction at low temperatures in a tabletop experiment. The reaction, which was thought to involve the fusion of hydrogen nuclei, was dubbed "cold fusion." Palladium electrodes played an important role in this experiment. It was postulated that hydrogen atoms could be "squeezed" between the palladium atoms to help them fuse at lower temperatures than usually required for fusion to proceed. Since then, many other experiments have been conducted to test the possibility of cold fusion, but scientists remain divided on the issue of whether the observations are based on genuine cases of nuclear fusion.

See also
Adsorption
Catalyst
Chemical element
Metal
Periodic table
Platinum
Transition metal
Notes

↑ Palladium Jewelry Retrieved December 9, 2007.

↑ Palladium Retrieved December 9, 2007.

↑ Palladium in Dentistry Retrieved December 9, 2007.


ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Chang, Raymond. 2006. Chemistry, ninth ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math. ISBN 0073221031
Cotton, F. Albert, and Wilkinson, Geoffrey. 1980. Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, 4th ed. New York: Wiley.
Greenwood, N.N. and Earnshaw, A. 1998. Chemistry of the Elements. 2nd Edition. Oxford, U.K.; Burlington, Massachusetts: Butterworth-Heinemann, Elsevier Science. ISBN 0750633654
Palladium Los Alamos National Laboratory. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
External links
All links retrieved November 18, 2022.

WebElements.com – Palladium
Rhodium and Palladium: Events Surrounding Their Discoveries
Palladium Coins

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