Discovery Information
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Who: Karl Klaus |
When: 1844 |
Where: Russia |
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Name Origin
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From Ruthenia Latin name of Russia. |
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Sources
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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.
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Uses
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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.
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The corrosion resistance of titanium is increased markedly by the addition of a small amount of ruthenium.
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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.
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Notes
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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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