Sunday, May 29, 2011

Platinum and Palladium -- Mentioned in Barron's This Weekend

Platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) are two interesting precious metals (actually all metals are interesting, maybe I should have studied Material Science rather than Geology and Business).

Barron's (the financial newspaper that comes out on weekends) has a good article in their "Commodities Corner" column there in the Market Watch section.  Those of you who are interested might want to check it out.  Barron's has an online edition, but I do not know if it is free.

Pt is used in jewelry (the white crown that holds the diamond in a ring is usually Pt) as well as a catalyst (industrial and automotive catalytic converters) as well as investment demand (me).

Pd is an interesting metal too.  Pd is permeable to hydrogen gas, that is hydrogen can go through Pd, but no other gas can!  This could be very useful in upcoming green technologies, especially if they wind up using hydrogen in vehicles.  Pd can hold 900 TIMES its volume of hydrogen.  Pd is used some as a catalyst,but apparently does not have as wide a range of uses as Pt does.  Pt, for example, can be used in diesel engines as well as gasoline engines.  Pd cannot (yet anyway) be used in diesel engines.

"Sometime" I will get around to writing more on platinum and palladium.  Unless I can con an expert (like virtual friend T.M. for example) to do a Guest Post...    :-)

3 comments:

  1. Something to do with the different operating temps of gas vs. diesel combustion - DF not hot enough exhaust for the catalytic reaction?...

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  2. Hmm....trying to figure out how to post comments. Looking forward to your thoughts on platinum and palladium. I've got a fairly good good foundation in gold and I've studied silver fanatically, but know little of the other precious metals.

    See you guys around :)

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  3. Your daughter, ever the Beatles fanatic, couldn't help but share an interesting, partially relevant fact: in 1963, the Beatles played at the London Palladium to HRM the Queen, where John Lennon said "For our last number I'd like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry."

    How's that for six degrees of separation?

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