Platinum Nugget

PGEs: The platinum-group elements (PGE) include platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium. Although platinum is well known for its use as jewelry and as an investment commodity, the major applications of PGE are industrial because these elements have high melting points, corrosion resistance, and catalytic qualities.  Their leading industrial use is in catalytic converters, which decrease hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide emissions in automobile exhaust. The chemical industry uses platinum or platinum-rhodium alloys to manufacture nitric oxide, the raw material for fertilizers, explosives, and nitric acid, and specialty silicones. In the petrochemical industry, platinum-supported catalysts are needed to refine crude oil and to produce high-octane gasoline. PGE are strategic and critical materials for many nations because they are essential for important industrial applications, have no adequate substitutes, and are mined in a limited number of places. Image credit: By Alchemist-hp (talk) (www.pse-mendelejew.de) - Own work, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9579015