What are the Platinum Group Elements (PGE)?

 What are the Platinum Group Elements (PGE)?

Ans: 

1)Platinum

2)Palladium 

3)Rhodium

4)Osmium

5)Ruthenium 

More than 100 different minerals have one of the PGEs as an essential component.

 PGE minerals occur as native metals. 

They also occur as compounds with other transition metals (copper, iron, mercury, nickel, and silver), post-transition metals (bismuth, lead, and tin), metalloids (antimony, arsenic, and tellurium), and nonmetals (selenium and sulfur).

Platinum, for example, is used in medical implants, such as pacemakers, and PGEs are used in cancer-fighting drugs. 

Platinum alloys are an ideal choice for jewelry because of their white color, strength, and resistance to tarnish.

 Platinum, palladium, and rhodium in the form of coins and bars are also used as investment commodities, and various financial instruments based on the value of these PGEs are traded on major exchanges.

Use of PGEs:-

1)PGEs have many industrial applications.

 2)They are used in catalytic converters to reduce carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon, and nitrous oxide emissions in automobile exhaust. 

3)The chemical industry requires platinum or platinum-rhodium alloys to manufacture nitric oxide, which is the raw material used to manufacture explosives, fertilizers, and nitric acid. In the petrochemical industry, platinum-supported catalysts are needed to refine crude oil and to produce aromatic compounds and high-octane gasoline. 

4)Alloys of PGEs are exceptionally hard and durable, making them the best known coating for industrial crucibles used in the manufacture of chemicals and synthetic materials. 

5)PGEs are used by the glass manufacturing industry in the production of fiberglass and flat-panel and liquid crystal displays. 

6)In the electronics industry, PGEs are used in computer hard disks, hybridized integrated circuits, and multilayer ceramic capacitors.