2 Sep 2019

Platinum - another pricey precious metal

From Elemental, 8:00 am on 2 September 2019

Platinum is a rare precious metal, that doesn’t corrode in oxygen.

It occurs in its native state in nature and was used in burial goods by South Americans about 2000 years ago.

Platinum is useful in catalytic convertors, along with palladium.

It is used to treat testicular cancer and will be useful in hydrogen fuel cells, says Prof Allan Blackman from AUT, in ep 59 of Elemental.

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Photo: RNZ

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The Elemental podcast is celebrating 150 years since the periodic table was first published by Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev.

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Professor Allan Blackman is at Auckland University of Technology.