Palladium is a precious silvery-white metal belonging to the platinum group of metals alongside platinum, iridium, rhodium, and osmium. Although palladium is considered a precious metal, it's not a metal that many choose to invest in. Palladium instead, is popular in manufacturing and various industries because of its versatile properties and popularity as a catalyst in chemical reactions. Discover how palladium contributes to the electronic, automobile, pharmaceutical, dentistry and jewellery industry!

Electronics 

Palladium’s contribution to electronics is its presence in multi-layer ceramic capacitors. These capacitors are passive electrical components that store an electrical charge. A multi-layer ceramic capacitor in particular is a type of capacitor with multiple layers of ceramic material that acts as dielectric. Palladium alloyed with either silver or nickel is sandwiched between multiple layers of ceramic to prevent the oxidation of electrodes. The main advantage of a multi-layer ceramic capacitor is its capacity for its size. Due to the multi-layered nature of these capacitors, they can achieve higher capacitance values than other types of capacitors while maintaining a small size. Because of their size, multilayer ceramic capacitors are popular in portable devices such as mobile phones and game consoles. Typically, you would find around 300 capacitors in a typical mobile phone and around a thousand in a PC or game console. Without the invention of these small but mighty capacitors, the weight reduction of mobile phones and portable consoles would not have been possible. Older capacitors manufactured before the 1990s contained anywhere from 2-5% palladium but newer models manufactured after the 1990s only contain a fraction of the palladium it used to.
 

Chemical Catalyst 

Palladium is a versatile catalyst with a high melting point and a low affinity for corrosion, allowing palladium to be effectively recycled. Palladium speeds up heterogeneous catalytic processes like hydrogenation, a chemical reaction between molecular hydrogen and another compound or element. Hydrogenation is a routine procedure in many industries, used to reduce or saturate organic molecules. In the food industry, hydrogenation is needed to convert liquid food oils to solid edible fats. Hydrogenation prevents the oxidation of different cooking oils, extending the oil's shelf life while simultaneously improving the texture and taste of cooking oil to refine the taste of fried goods. In the petroleum industry, palladium is needed to hydrogenate hydrocarbons to form alkanes into gasoline. Hydrocracking breaks crude oil’s long hydro-chains into lighter petroleum products like diesel and gas. In the pharmaceutical industry, palladium-based catalysts synthesize chemical ingredients. Many drugs use hydrogenation to reduce alkenes and alkynes without affecting other groups in a molecule. Palladium-based catalysts are widely used since palladium is effective in coupling molecules with low reactivity, facilitating reactions at lower temperatures. 

Catalytic Converters

Like platinum, palladium is a metal popular for its use in catalytic converters. These converters have been mandated in all vehicles since the 1970s to reduce harmful emissions from polluting the environment. Palladium allows catalytic converters to convert 90% of all emissions, the hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxide produced by burning gasoline into safer chemicals like water, carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The platinum group metals remain effective and stable in the high-temperature environment of an engine and are durable enough to last the lifespan of a car. Compared to platinum’s popularity as a catalyst for diesel vehicles, palladium as a catalyst is more effective at lower temperatures, making it better suited for gasoline-powered vehicles. Palladium saw an abrupt increase in popularity when auto manufacturers stockpiled platinum after regulating emissions became widespread in the 1970s. Due to the decrease in the supply and availability of platinum, its prices skyrocketed in the 1980s. Many manufacturers then switched to palladium, a suitable substitute. However, palladium is scarcer than platinum and eventually by the end of the 1990s, the price of palladium overtook platinum again. Ever since palladium has been regulated for use in gasoline cars. 

Dentistry 

In response to the increased price of gold in the 1970s, alloys containing palladium grew in popularity in dentistry. Palladium is typically used in dental alloys to restore missing teeth or for crowns to fill cavities. Dental alloys must be created with a material that can withstand the wear and tear of chewing while also being non-toxic and biocompatible. Precious metals are the perfect material for metal castings since the metals are inert and durable. Palladium is usually alloyed with silver to boost durability in crowns, bridges, and inlays. 

Jewellery 

In jewellery, palladium was considered an alternative to platinum and white gold ever since white jewellery exploded in popularity during the 1900s. While platinum jewellery is denser than gold, palladium has the advantage of being a similar density to gold and can be moulded into thin leaves, as thin as 100 nanometers. However, palladium is finicky to work with since it discolours due to oxidation and is considerably more brittle than platinum and gold. As a result, palladium jewellery has to be heated and moulded under controlled conditions. When platinum became a key resource during World War II and was banned for all non-military industries, palladium became a popular substitute for white jewellery, the trending look in the 1940s. Palladium is also commonly used as an alloying metal to achieve the shiny white metal look of white gold. One key application of this feature is found in fountain pens. When manufacturers such as Sheaffer wanted a silver-white appearance on their regular gold nibs, the nibs were plated with palladium to achieve a silvery-white finish.