Ruthenium [Ru] (CAS-ID: 7440-18-8) locate me
An: 44 N: 57 Am: 101.07 (2)
Group No: 8  Group Name: Precious metal or Platinum group metal
Block: d-block  Period: 5
State: solid
Colour: silvery white metallic Classification: Metallic
Boiling Point: 4423K (4150'C)
Melting Point: 2607K (2334'C)
Density: 12.45g/cm3
Shell Structure diagram | Atomic Radius diagram
Isotopes | More Info
Discovery Information
Who: Karl Klaus
When: 1844
Where: Russia
Name Origin
From Ruthenia Latin name of Russia.
Sources
Found in the minerals pentlandite and pyroxinite. It is also possible to extract Ruthenium from spent nuclear fuel, which contains an average of 2 kg per metric ton.
Uses
Used to harden platinum and palladium. Also used in eye treatments, thickness meters for egg shells, fountain pen points, and electrical contacts. Aircraft magnetos use platinum alloy with 10% ruthenium.
The corrosion resistance of titanium is increased markedly by the addition of a small amount of ruthenium.
Recently, large metallo-organic complexes of ruthenium have been found to exhibit anti-tumor activity and the first of a new group of anti-cancer medicine are now in the stage of clinical trials.
Notes
The compound ruthenium tetroxide, RuO4, similar to osmium tetroxide, is highly toxic and may explode. Ruthenium plays no biological role but does strongly stain human skin, may be carcinogenic and bio-accumulates in bone.
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