Palladium is a pricey precious metal that is one of a group of metals known as platinum group metals. Of these, palladium is the least dense and has the lowest melting point.
It is named after the asteroid Pallas, which was discovered around the same time; Pallas was the Greek God of wisdom.
White gold is alloyed with palladium.
Palladium (symbol Pd, atomic number 46) is most commonly used in catalytic convertors on car exhausts, says AUT's Allan Blackman, in ep 57 of Elemental.
Photo: RNZ
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Professor Allan Blackman is at Auckland University of Technology.
