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Platinum Pt
Where is platinum used--or where does it impact your everyday life?
Used in jewelry--
Platinum foil is used as electrodes in electrolysis--the breakdown of chemicals using DC, direct electricity
SEE THE VIDEO where hydrogen is produced at the cathode and oxygen is produced at the anode in the elctrolysis of dilute sulfuric acid
Cathode equation: 2H+ + 2e- --> H2
Anode equation: 4OH- --> 2H2O + O2 + 4e-
The two electrodes are made of platinum foil because platinum does not react with the gases produced. (the anode, negative electrode, is connected to the positive, red terminal of the DC (direct current) power supply and the cathode is connected to the black terminal.
Platinum is used in catalytic converters in automobiles to reduce environmentally harmful gases by reacting the toxic gases to form less harmful products.
Platinum is an oxidation catalyst: oxidizing carbon monoxide with oxygen and to carbon dioxide
2CO + O2 --> 2CO2
and burning some unburned hydrocarbons to CO2 and H2O
The image is of a catalytic converter from a Toyota Tundra--which has 4 different catalytic converter
WIS photographer
The Hall saphire necklace with diamonds and on a platinum band viewed at the National Museum of Natural History during aChemistry One field trip.
WIS photographer
This platinum containing ore is sperrylite, PtAs2, with chalcopyrite and pentlandite from the Talnach deposit, Noril'sk, Krasnoyarskiy Kray, Russia viewed at the National Museum of Natural Histoy in Washington DC during a Chemistry One field trip
WIS Photographer
IA platinum locket necklace
WIS Photographer
This wire is used for borax bead tests--to identify metal ions in salts. It can be made out of platinul wire, although the wire in the image is probably nichrome wire. The wire is heated strongly, dipped in borax (Na2B4O7) and reheated until it forms a glass-like bead. The bead is moistened and placed in the salt for analysis and heated gently. The colors identify the cation in the salt. Examples
Cu2+ blue --> red
